Boston Bruins (44-14-12, first in the Atlantic Division during the regular season) vs. Tampa Bay Lightning (43-21-6, second in the Atlantic Division during the regular season)
Toronto; Sunday, 8 p.m. EDT
EASTERN CONFERENCE SECOND ROUND: Tampa Bay and Boston begin series
BOTTOM LINE: The Tampa Bay Lightning play the Boston Bruins to begin the Eastern Conference second round. The teams meet Sunday for the fifth time this season. Tampa Bay went 3-1 against Boston during the regular season.
The Lightning have gone 18-5-1 against division opponents. Tampa Bay has scored 243 goals and is first in the Eastern Conference averaging 3.5 goals per game. Nikita Kucherov leads the team with 33.
The Bruins are 14-6-3 against the rest of their division. Boston leads the Eastern Conference with 57 power-play goals, led by David Pastrnak with 20.
TOP PERFORMERS: Kucherov leads the Lightning with 85 points, scoring 33 goals and adding 52 assists. Brayden Point has seven goals and five assists over the last 10 games for Tampa Bay.
Zdeno Chara leads the Bruins with a plus-26 in 68 games this season. David Krejci has three goals and seven assists over the last 10 games for Boston.
DURING THE PLAYOFFS: Lightning: Averaging 2.5 goals, 4.6 assists, 5.0 penalties and 10.8 penalty minutes while giving up 2.5 goals per game with a .927 save percentage.
Bruins: Averaging 2.4 goals, 4.2 assists, 3.9 penalties and 9.1 penalty minutes while giving up 2.5 goals per game with a .907 save percentage.
INJURIES: Lightning: Steven Stamkos: out (lower body).
Bruins: None listed.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
The Associated Press
