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BOSTON (WBZ-AM) -- David Pastrnak's undermanned Bruins capped a successful 2-0-and-2 road trip with Tuesday's rally for a shootout loss in Winnipeg.
Boston picked up six of a possible eight points outside the Garden, but they're back home tonight, and first-place is on the line against Tampa Bay.
Thanks to a 10-2-and-3 run their last 15, B's trail the Lightning by only one point for the East lead, with a game in-hand and a pair of head-to-head meetings left.
Black and Gold have won both match-ups this year by a combined 6-2 margin with Tuukka Rask getting the best of Andrei Vasilevskiy, and the Bolts have struggled a bit lately with losses in two straight and four of seven.
Both clubs have dealt with injuries recently. Boston got Patrice Bergeron and Torey Krug back, but has been missing newly-extended captain Zdeno Chara, Charlie McAvoy, David Backes, Rick Nash, Jake DeBrusk, and Matt Grzelcyk.
Steven Stamkos sat out Tampa's latest defeat with a nagging lower-body injury.
Rask is 15-6-and-1 lifetime against the Lightning.
Puck drops at 7 p.m. Hear more from David Pastrnak below.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Adam Kaufman reports