NHL: Bruins beat Coyotes for 7th straight win

NHL • Stars forward Peverley back with team after collapse.
This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Boston • With one month to go in the NHL's regular season, the Boston Bruins have taken over the top spot in the Eastern Conference standings.

Tuukka Rask made 21 saves and the Bruins beat the Phoenix Coyotes 2-1 on Thursday night for their seventh consecutive victory. The win gave Boston 93 points, one more than the Pittsburgh Penguins.

"I think we just want to get our game to the place we want to be at in the playoffs, and not worry about looking at the standings," Rask said. "But it's better to be on the top than the bottom."

Zdeno Chara and Jarome Iginla scored for Boston one night after a 4-1 victory over archrival Montreal. Rask made 35 saves in that one, but coach Claude Julien decided to start him on back-to-back nights because he didn't seem overly tired from the effort against the Canadiens.

"He can rest tomorrow because we don't play," Julien said, praising his players for not having a letdown after the game against their division rivals. "It's not so much the (winning) streak, it's the consistency. The consistency leads to that streak."

Mike Smith made 18 saves for the Coyotes. Despite heading to Boston with a two-game winning streak, Phoenix wrapped up its four-game trip with a 2-2 record to remain in ninth place in the West, one point behind the Dallas Stars.

"Obviously, we need more points than we got, and .500 is not what we're looking for," coach Dave Tippett said. "We've got to go home and regroup."

The Bruins scored twice in the first period, the first goal coming on Chara's wrist shot past Smith, who was screened by Boston forward Chris Kelly. It was the 16th goal of the season for the Bruins' captain — three short of his career high.

Peverley out of hospital, with teammates • Dallas Stars forward Rich Peverley is out of the hospital and spending time with his teammates three days after he collapsed on the bench during a game.

The team said Peverley was released from St. Paul University Hospital in Dallas on Wednesday night. He was with the team during practice Thursday at headquarters in suburban Frisco.

Peverley is out for the season and will soon go to Cleveland for a procedure to fix an irregular heartbeat that was diagnosed in training camp. He collapsed during the first period Monday night against Columbus. The game was postponed.

The 31-year-old decided not to have the procedure after the diagnosis. —

Standings

EASTERN CONFERENCE

Atlantic Division

GP W L OT Pts GF GA

Boston 66 44 17 5 93 210 145

Toronto 67 35 24 8 78 198 205

Tampa Bay 66 35 24 7 77 191 175

Montreal 67 35 25 7 77 167 170

Detroit 65 29 23 13 71 172 183

Ottawa 65 28 25 12 68 185 213

Florida 66 24 35 7 55 161 214

Buffalo 66 19 39 8 46 131 196

Metropolitan Division

GP W L OT Pts GF GA

Pittsburgh 65 44 17 4 92 206 159

Columbus 66 34 26 6 74 193 183

N.Y. Rangers 67 35 28 4 74 173 167

Philadelphia 65 33 25 7 73 184 190

New Jersey 66 29 24 13 71 163 168

Washington 67 30 27 10 70 193 202

Carolina 66 29 28 9 67 167 187

N.Y. Islanders 67 25 33 9 59 188 228

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Central Division

GP W L OT Pts GF GA

St. Louis 66 45 14 7 97 219 150

Colorado 66 43 18 5 91 202 174

Chicago 66 38 14 14 90 225 175

Minnesota 66 35 22 9 79 163 162

Dallas 65 32 23 10 74 188 181

Winnipeg 67 30 28 9 69 184 195

Nashville 66 28 28 10 66 160 195

Pacific Division

GP W L OT Pts GF GA

Anaheim 66 43 16 7 93 210 167

San Jose 67 43 17 7 93 209 162

Los Angeles 66 38 22 6 82 162 139

Phoenix 67 31 25 11 73 185 191

Vancouver 68 30 28 10 70 160 183

Calgary 66 26 33 7 59 159 196

Edmonton 67 23 36 8 54 168 221

NOTE: Two points for a win, one point for overtime loss.

Thursday's Games

San Jose 4, Columbus 3, SO

Boston 2, Phoenix 1

Carolina 4, Buffalo 2

Tampa Bay 5, Florida 4

St. Louis 6, Edmonton 2

Minnesota 2, N.Y. Rangers 1

Toronto at Los Angeles, late

Friday's games

San Jose at N.Y. Islanders, 5 p.m.

Vancouver at Washington, 5 p.m.

Edmonton at Detroit, 5:30 p.m.

New Jersey at Florida, 5:30 p.m.

Nashville at Chicago, 6 p.m.

N.Y. Rangers at Winnipeg, 6 p.m.

Calgary at Dallas, 6:30 p.m.

Anaheim at Colorado, 7 p.m.