BOSTON — Jimmy Hayes had a little fun after scoring his first goal of the season.
Hayes capped Boston’s three-goal second period, Tuukka Rask stopped 30 shots and the Bruins snapped a three-game losing streak by beating the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-1 on Sunday.
Hayes tipped David Krejci’s pass into the top right corner late in the second. He then reached over his shoulder and motioned as if he was removing his scoring drought from his shoulders.
“It was more of a joke that it was an elephant,” Hayes said when asked if he was throwing a monkey off his back. “I think I lost like 100 pounds there. It felt pretty good.”
Rask lost his bid for his fourth shutout with 2:39 to play when Victor Hedman scored. But he improved to 12-4.
“Good thing I don’t have a bonus for that stuff,” Rask said, smiling. “That’s alright, tough bounce.”
David Pastrnak had his team-leading 13th goal, and David Backes and Dominic Moore also scored. Boston scored just four total goals in its previous three games.
“I think just we went back to a lot of things that we had done so well before,” coach Claude Julien said. “We were throwing more pucks at the net.”
Ben Bishop made 26 saves for Tampa Bay, which lost its second straight.
Julien coached his 726th game with the Bruins, tying Milt Schmidt – the oldest living member of the Hall of Fame at 98 years old – for second in team history.
After a listless opening period that had very few hits and less scoring chances, Boston jumped in front on Moore’s goal 2:24 into the second when he whacked at a loose puck with a two-handed chopping motion and it sailed past Bishop.
Many of the Lightning’s players were bothered by a weak start for the second straight game.
“We just got off to another slow start,” Bishop said. “We can’t wait until we’re down three-nothing before we start, you know, bringing it to them.”
With Jonathan Drouin in the penalty box for tripping, Backes tipped Torey Krug’s wrist shot from the right point into the net at 11:45.
“We started waking up and skating more in the third period. We’ve just got to do a better job from the get-go,” Drouin said. “Definitely some bad bounces didn’t go our way, but we’ve got to be better from the get-go.”
Boston defenceman John-Michael Liles crashed into the boards after tripping over Bishop cutting near the crease. He was on his back on the ice for a few minutes before being helped off. The team said he had an upper-body injury.
NOTES: Hayes’ last goal was on Feb. 24, a span of 35 games. … The Bruins are 0-6 in games not started by Rask. … Bruins D Zdeno Chara missed his third straight game with a lower-body injury after skating on his own in the morning. … Tampa Bay D Anton Stralman was out for the eighth straight game with an upper-body injury. . Boston D Colin Miller was back in the lineup after being a healthy scratch the previous six, replacing D Joe Morrow, who was a healthy scratch. “I definitely felt slow at the start, real slow,” Miller said.
