In Tampa, the visiting Boston Bruins were looking to push ahead of the New York Rangers for first in the Eastern Conference. 
Instead, the Lightning tagged them with a 3-1 loss on Wednesday night.
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 23 saves in the win.
“I thought we were consistent for the whole 60, it felt like playoff hockey out there,” Vasilevskiy said. “I know they were on a back-to-back, but we took advantage. I feel like we’re growing together as a team. We’re hunting for a playoff spot and because we’ve won our last few games it doesn’t mean we’re already there. Just gotta keep pushing, keep trying.”
The Lightning moved to 40-25-7, stretching point streak to eight games, 7-0-1.
“I’m not going to take anything away from what we did, I thought we played strong from the drop of the puck right to the end,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “Boston had a really hard-fought game last night, found a way to dig in, come back and get that win. The message to the guys was, there are times you should catch a team that might be a little tired. Getting the lead was big for us tonight. But I thought … take advantage of a team that emptied the tank the night before and we did.”
Tampa moved to within two points of the idle Toronto Maple Leafs for third in the Atlantic Division.
Tampa Bay took a 1-0 lead midway through the opening stanza on a strike by Mitchell Chaffee. He scored from the low slot on an easy tap in for the lead.
The Bruins replied with a marker from Danton Heinen at 17:11 of the first, to tie the game, 1-1, scoring off an errant puck.
“Tough loss, obviously we weren’t at our best and didn’t deserve to win,” the Bruins’ David Pastrnak said. “The outcome is just as it should be. Tough power play, we couldn’t get it going … 6-on-5 tough, we couldn’t get in the zone.”
The Bruins dropped to 42-17-15 off their third loss in four games.
“I didn’t think either team was really on top of their game, to be honest,” Boston coach Jim Montgomery said. “I think they were traveling back from the West Coast. So I don’t think they were as sharp as they’ve been and the intensity and the emotion in the game was not the same as last night.”
In the middle frame, Brayden Point put the Lightning up, 2-1, at 6:50. scoring off a shot that rebounded off the backboards.
“Tonight was one of our more complete games,” Point said. “Good attention to detail. Boston is a great team and they’re going to get chances, but I thought we did a good job of tracking them when they did and obviously Vasy made some really huge saves for us.”
In the third period, Nikita Kucherov hit an empty net with 27 seconds left on the game clock for the 3-1 final count on the scoreboard. 
Linus Ullmark made 27 saves in the loss.
“I like to win every game I play, right now it seems like I’m letting in one too many,” Ullmark said. “But I also could be speaking out of my emotions right now … maybe tomorrow I can take a better look at it.”
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