By Danny Picard
CSNNE.com
BOSTON -- The Bruins won the battle for second place in the Eastern Conference on Thursday night at the TD Garden, as Milan Lucics 28th goal of the season, with 3:42 left in regulation, gave the Bs their first lead of the game and their seventh straight win, 2-1 over Tampa Bay.
Both the Bruins and Lightning entered the game with 81 points.
Lucic put Boston ahead after a loose puck squirted out to the left side of the net, and he finished with a wrister upstairs on Lightning goaltender Mike Smith.
The teams went into the third period tied at 1-1, and Bruins defenseman Steve Kampfer was involved in both goals.
His turnover in Bostons zone, four minutes into the second period, led to an Eric Brewer shot from the high slot that beat Tim Thomas to the low-right corner. Kampfer tried clearing the zone along the left wall, but put the puck right on Blair Jones tape at the point.
Jones kept it in the Bruins zone, and dropped a pass to Brewer at the high slot, giving Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead.
Boston Bruins
But Kampfer got it right back, two minutes later, when he beat Smith with a low slap shot from the right point, tying the game at 1-1.
Kampfer rewarded the hard work of Chris Kelly and Rich Peverley in the Lightning corner, who battled on the forecheck to work the puck out to the point. Danny Picard is on Twitter at http:twitter.comDannyPicard. You can listen to Danny on his streaming radio show I'm Just Sayin' Monday-Friday from 9-10 a.m. on CSNNE.com.