Recchi's power-play goal with 20 seconds left in game wins it

Boston Bruins left wing Brad Marchand (63) celebrates with teammates, including Gregory Campbell (11) and Shawn Thornton (22), after scoring a goal against the Tampa Bay Lightning during the third period of an NHL hockey game Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2010, in Tampa, Fla. Boston won 4-3. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

With Tampa Bay sniper Steven Stamkos in the box on a controversial boarding call, the ageless wonder Mark Recchi scored a power-play goal with 20 seconds left in the third period to give the Bruins the 4-3 lead. That goal would be the game winner and the Bruins would get the two points from the game.

The first three Bruins goals came from Michael Ryder (his 11th goal of the season, a power-play goal), Steve Kampfer (his 1st NHL goal), and Brad Marchand (his 5th goal of the season). Marchand returned to the lineup and besides scoring a goal, he also drew a few penalties.

Coach Claude Julien benched Marc Savard and Nathan Horton for some of the third period as both players weren't playing well. Julien put Recchi and Patrice Bergeron with Milan Lucic, which meant Tyler Seguin found himself on the bench as well for some of the third period.

Tim Thomas played in net and made 31 saves on 34 shots. Thomas is now 18-4-3, with a 1.73 GAA, and a .947 save percentage.

The Bruins are currently in first place in the Northeast division (2 points ahead of Montreal with 2 games in hand) with a 20-11-4 record. In their division, the Bruins lead in goals scored and have the lowest goals against. The next game for the Bruins is on Thursday at the Atlanta Thrashers.

The next three games are all rivalry games, Atlanta on Thursday, Buffalo on Saturday, and Toronto on Monday (all road games for the Bruins). We all remember what happened in the last meeting between the Bruins and Thrashers. We're all expecting something to happen and usually when we do, nothing happens. In the last meeting the Bruins had with the Sabres, at the end of the game Zdeno Chara and Ryan Miller got into it and then Paul Gaustad came in with his stick (similar to last year in the playoffs) and not his fists. Will Gaustad finally grow a pair and take on Chara rather than use his stick all the time? Probably not. And then on Monday the Bruins-Maple Leafs matchup which is always interesting. These games should be exciting and should be rough physical games.