Pasta scores twice, lifts Bruins

SUNRISE, Fla. — David Pastrnak scored two goals and the Bruins snapped a five-game winless streak, beating the Florida Panthers, 4-2, on Saturday night.

David Krejci and Jake DeBrusk each had a goal and an assist for the Bruins, and Torey Krug had two assists. Jaroslav Halak stopped 31 shots.

Keith Yandle and Mark Pysyk scored goals for the Panthers, who lost their third straight. Sergei Bobrovsky made 38 saves, including 21 in the first period.

Florida’s Aleksander Barkov had to be helped off the ice by teammates late in the third period with an apparent leg injury after being forced into the boards by Boston's Charlie McAvoy.

Pysyk closed the score to 3-1 when he poked in a loose puck from in front at 2:46 of the third.

The Panthers trimmed the lead to 3-2 when Yandle shot from the point and the puck went over Halak’s glove and into the net with 10:47 left in the game.

Pastrnak’s second goal was an empty-netter with 2:10 left.

The Bruins went ahead, 2-0, on Krejci’s shot from the high slot that was initially blocked but trickled under Bobrovsky’s pads at 3:14 of the second.

Pastrnak’s power-play goal stretched Boston’s lead to 3-0. Brad Marchand passed from the left circle to Pastrnak on the right side of the crease for an easy tap-in at 7:30 of the second. Pastrnak has scored seven goals over the last 11 games.

Pastrnak was awarded a penalty shot at 13:31 of the third when Aaron Ekblad was called for hooking, but his attempt was blocked by Bobrovsky.

DeBrusk gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead after he got a loose puck in the slot and fired it over Bobrovsky at 14:41 of the first.

Notes

Marchand leads the Bruins with 49 points, scoring 18 goals and 31 assists. ... Bruins F Brett Ritchie was scratched. ... Panthers C Dominic Toninato was a healthy scratch. ... In the teams’ last meeting, Nov. 12 at Boston, the Panthers recorded the first four-goal comeback in franchise history, with all four goals coming in the third period.

Capitals 5, Lightning 2: Lars Eller and Garnet Hathaway scored 44 seconds apart early in the third period and NHL-leading Washington beat host Tampa Bay.

Ellers scored from the left circle at 1:58 and Hathaway made it 3-1 from in-close.

Nicklas Backstrom, T.J Oshie and Tom Wilson had the other Washington goals, and rookie goalie Ilya Samsonov stopped 26 shots.

Tampa Bay got goals from Brayden Point and Jan Rutta. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 29 saves.

The Lightning dropped to 8-7-1 at home, matching the total of losses (32-7-2) from all of last season.

Tampa Bay's overall record this season is 16-12-3. The Lightning, who tied an NHL-record for wins (62-16-4) in 2018-19, didn't lose their 12th game in regulation until Feb. 28 (49-12-4).

Lightning star Nikita Kucherov, last season's NHL MVP, left midway through the second after taking John Carlson's shot off the right foot-shin area and did not return.

Rutta stopped a 30-game goal drought at 11:16 of the third but Oshie put the Capitals up 4-2 just 1:03 later.

Wilson added an empty-netter.

Backstrom opened the scoring at 6:42 of the first. Rutta was getting ready to make a pass when teammate Ondrej Palat skated in front of him behind the net on a breakout play and had the puck go off his skate right to Backstrom in the low slot.

Samsonov kicked out his left leg to stop an in-close back-hander by Mikhail Sergachev early in the first. Kevin Shattenkirk sent a shot from a tough angle behind Samsonov later in the period but the puck went through the crease along the goal line and went off the post.

Soon after Vasilevskiy made a short-handed glove save when Carl Hagelin's shot that went off Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman, Point tied it a 1 from the slot 5:45 into the second.