BOSTON -- The Boston Bruins extended their winning streak to four games with a 5-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers Thursday night at TD Garden.
The Bruins received power-play goals from Carl Soderberg and Dougie Hamilton, while Reilly Smith, Loui Eriksson and Milan Lucic (empty-netter) chipped in one goal each. Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask finished with 24 saves.
Despite the winning streak, the Bruins haven't played their best, and for the second consecutive game they had to grind out a win. Boston trailed by one early in the third period, but scored three goals in 2:34 en route to the win.
Although the Bruins finished strong, the Oilers struck first.
With the Bruins' David Krejci in the box for a double-minor, high-sticking penalty, the Oilers took advantage and gained a 1-0 lead at 14:49 of the first period. The Oilers produced a scramble in front of Rask, who sprawled out for the puck, but it trickled past him. Hamilton nearly kept the puck out of the net, but the referee signaled for a goal, and the replay confirmed it.
The Bruins tied the game at 1-1 at 18:45 of the opening period. Smith was open in the neutral zone when he received a pass from Brad Marchand. Smith broke into the offensive zone and it seemed he was going to hit Bergeron with a pass, but Smith unleashed a wrist shot from the top of the right face-off circle that beat Edmonton goalie Ben Scrivens to the top right corner. With his assist on the play, Marchand added to his point streak, giving him seven points in the last four games.
The Oilers regained the lead early in the third period after Rask gave up a bad rebound that Edmonton's Mark Arcobello jumped all over and pumped in at 1:44.
It appeared that the Bruins netted the equalizer about midway through the third as Scrivens made the initial save on a Seth Griffith shot, but the Edmonton goalie never covered the puck. Krejci knocked in the loose puck, but the referee had blown the play dead before it went in. In fact, it was the second time in the game the Bruins were on the wrong end of a quick whistle.
Boston recovered from the bit of bad luck and knotted the game at 2-2 when Eriksson scored at 11:04 of the third period. He came off the bench, quickly jumped into the play and put himself in perfect position to knock in a deflected puck. It was Eriksson's third goal of the season.
The Bruins gained some big-time momentum and capitalized with a pair of power-play goals at 12:29 and 13:38. On the first, Bergeron did the grunt work to get Soderberg the puck in the slot, but before the puck went in Bergeron drew a penalty. Boston was given another power play and Hamilton provided the second man-advantage tally, which originally was credited to Soderberg.
Lucic added the empty-netter with 7.5 seconds remaining.
BACK IN ACTION: After missing the last two games with an undisclosed injury, Krejci returned to the lineup. He has missed a total of five games this season, and he last played a week ago against the Sabres in Buffalo. The Bruins' top-line center has nine points in nine games this season. He was back with Lucic and Griffith.
500 CLUB: Lucic, 26, played his 500th career NHL game. Boston drafted the 6-foot-3, 235-pound forward with its second pick (50th overall) in the 2006 draft. He made his Bruins debut as a 19-year-old during the 2007-08 season and played 77 games, posting 27 points. He's reached the 20-goal plateau three times, and for his career has 306 points (123 goals, 183 assists) with a plus-81 rating.
