BOSTON (Reuters) - The Boston Bruins put their Stanley Cup defense back on track with a convincing 4-1 win at home over the Tampa Bay Lightning Saturday in a re-match of their 2011 Eastern conference final.
The Bruins, who raised their champions banner before crashing to a 2-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers in their season-opening game Thursday, had the measure of Tampa Bay again, with Rich Peverly leading the offence with two goals.
Following a goal-less first period, Peverley sparked a scoring flurry of three goals in three minutes, tapping in a loose puck that had caromed off the goal post from a shot by Brad Marchand.
"I think as long as we're getting chances we're going to be happy," Peverley said.
"And if we continue to get chances we're going to win like tonight. We all did a good job of shooting the puck and getting second chances and that's how we scored the goals."
Tampa Bay's Martin St. Louis scored his 300th NHL goal on a breakaway to tie the score before Daniel Paille restored the Bruins' lead, re-directing a shot from the blueline by Adam McQuaid.
David Krejci and Peverley added a goal each in the third period as Boston finished with 42 scoring shots to Tampa Bay's 26, with Marchand and Tyler Seguin chipping in with two assists.
"We were in this game going into the third, but if it wasn't for our goaltender, it could've been a three-goal game at that point," said St. Louis of his goalie Mathieu Garon.
"They just kind of circled our players. We got outplayed, outpoised, outmuscled and outbattled. There wasn't much positive to take out of this game, besides the fact that our goalie gave us a chance going into the third period."
(Reporting by Mike Mouat in Windsor, Ontario. Editing by Ian Ransom)
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