BOSTON — The Tampa Bay Lightning won their NHL record-tying 62nd game, getting a shorthanded goal by Steven Stamkos during a three-goal second period in their 6-3 victory over the Boston Bruins on Saturday in the teams’ regular-season finale.
Nikita Kucherov, Anthony Cirelli, Erik Cernak and Braydon Coburn also scored for Tampa Bay (62-16-4), which tied the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings for most victories during the regular season.
![Jeremy Lauzon, Ryan Callahan](https://s3951.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Bruins-Lightning-CP-575x351.jpg)
Six of the wins, though, came in shootouts. The league introduced shootouts to decide ties after overtime at the start of the 2005-06 season. Before that, games ended in ties after overtime, which was brought in for regular-season games in 1983.
David Krejci, Danton Heinen and Matt Grzelcyk each had a goal for Boston (49-24-9), which fell one short of consecutive 50-win seasons since collecting four straight from 1970-71 through 1973-74. Tuukka Rask made 16 saves.
Kucherov will almost certainly win the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL’s leading scorer with 128 points (41 goals, 87 assists) barring a record setting night Edmonton’s Connor McDavid, who trails by 12 points.
Third-string goalie Edward Pasquale stopped 30 shots and Tyler Johnson added an empty-netter.
It was the Lightning’s 30th road win, making them just the second team in league history to reach that total. The 2005-06 Red Wings had 31.
Both teams had a handful of players that were rested. Boston had a larger group that included top-line players Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand, who finished as the first Bruins player with 100 points in a regular season (36 goals, 64 assists) since Joe Thornton in 2002-03.
Trailing 2-1, Stamkos stole a pass and went in all alone, shifting around Rask before tucking a backhander into the net for an unassisted goal, tying it at 2 midway into the second. Cirelli’s goal 4:07 later moved the Lightning ahead 3-2. Kucherov scored 53 seconds into the third.
![Nikita Kucherov, Tuukka Rask](https://s3951.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Kucherov-Rask-CP-575x335.jpg)
Krejci’s was credited with a goal 14:38 into the game that made it 1-0. Charlie McAvoy was originally given the goal after he collected a loose puck and fired it at the net as Krejci was charging toward the front.
Heinen beat Pasquale with a rising wrister inside the left post to make it 2-0 with 19.1 seconds left in the opening period. Cernak slipped a wrister past Rask from the slot for a power-play goal 4:41 into the second.
NOTES: Kucherov’s goal gave him 127 points, tying Alexander Mogilny’s mark set in 1992-93 for most by a Russian-born player. . Bruins defencemen Brandon Carlo, John Moore and Kevan Miller were out of the lineup along with forwards Chris Wagner and Noel Acciari. . Tampa Bay sat defencemen Victor Hedman, Anton Stralman and Mikhail Sergachev and forwards Cedric Paquette and Brayden Point. . Marchand won the Elizabeth Dufresne Trophy that’s voted by the local chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers Association for the best performance during home games. . Boston’s Charlie Coyle played his 500th NHL game.
UP NEXT
Lightning: Host Columbus or Carolina in the first game of the opening-round of the playoffs this week.
Bruins: Host Toronto in Game 1 of the first round, likely beginning Thursday.
Ken Powtak, The Associated Press