Bruins play "Bruins hockey" and beat Lightning 2-0

BOSTON, MA - APRIL 25: Dougie Hamilton #27 of the Boston Bruins prsented the 7th Player Award before the game against the Tampa Bay Lightning at the TD Garden on April 25, 2013 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Steve Babineau/NHLI via Getty Images

Before the game, the 7th Player Award was handed out to rookie defenseman Dougie Hamilton, which is awarded to the Bruin who went above and beyond the call of duty and exceeded the expectations of Bruins fans during the 2012-13 season.

The Bruins were back to playing "Bruins hockey" last night as they hit, scored, and played defense to beat a struggling Tampa Bay Lightning team that the Bruins should have beat anyways. Can they continue this kind of play against a playoff-caliber team though? We will see.

Quick game summary
In the first period, no scoring happened, but we did see a spirited bout between Andrew Ference and ex-Bruin Benoit Pouliot. Remember these two fought when Pouliot played on Montreal too. From the replays of the video it looks like maybe Pouliot had his stick high close to Ference's face so that may be why Ference went right at him.

In the second period, Bruins Dennis Seidenberg scored his 3rd goal of the season, making it 1-0. Later, Bruins Daniel Paille scored his 10th goal of the season, making it 2-0 Bruins. Also in this period we got to see Bruins Milan Lucic drop the gloves, as it seems like it's been forever, against 6'6" defenseman Keith Aulie. Aulie was no match for Lucic as Lucic handled him pretty easily and got him down to the ice.

In the third period, no scoring happened.

Game notes
Tuukka Rask played in net and stopped all 30 shots that he faced and recorded his 5th shutout of the season. Rask is now 19-9-4 with a 1.94 GAA and a .931 save percentage this season.

The Bruins led the game in faceoff wins 36-20 and blocked shots 15-13. The Lightning led the game in shots 30-24 and hits 20-18. The Bruins went 0-for-1 on the power-play while the Lightning went 0-for-3.

Besides the fight, Milan Lucic had 4 hits so hopefully he is on his way back to the way he can play.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 28-13-5 with 61 points and in 1st place in the Northeast Division (Montreal also has 61 points but they've played one more game than Boston). The next game for the Bruins is on Saturday when the Bruins play at the Washington Capitals at 7pm ET. The Bruins have 2 games left in the regular season.