TAMPA www.officialkings.com , Fla. (AP) The Tampa Bay Lightning, with a primary assist from a team that handled them during the regular season, are back in the Eastern Conference final for the third time in four years.Thank you, Boston Bruins.”I guess I can say it now. Boston set the bar for us, and we played them three times late in the year,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said after his team’s 3-1 victory over the Bruins ended their second-round playoff series in five games.”The first two times we played them, they literally manhandled us. … and we knew if we were going to go anywhere when we made the playoffs, or if we made the playoffs, that we had to be as good as Boston,” Cooper added.”We beat them 4-0 (in the last meeting). I think that gave us a little hit of confidence. I guess a lot of confidence. … and, ultimately we carried that through into this playoff round.”Brayden Point and J.T. Miller scored second-period goals and Anton Stralman added an empty-netter with 1:29 remaining to end any chance for a Boston comeback.Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 27 shots – 14 in the final period – for the Lightning, who rebounded from losing the series opener at home to eliminate the Bruins in five games.Boston won three of the four games between the teams during the regular season, finishing one point behind Tampa Bay for the Atlantic Division title and the No. 1 seed in the East.The Bruins outlasted Toronto in seven games in the opening round of the playoffs. They scored six goals to beat the Lightning in Game 1, but had difficulty scoring after that.Over the last three games, Boston failed to score an even-strength goal.”You’ve got to give them credit. We’re a team that scored all year long with different players in and out of the lineup,” Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said.”We scored against Toronto, so it’s not like after 89 games we forgot how to score or not play the right way Los Angeles Kings T-Shirts Authentic ,” Cassidy added. ”I think their D corps is big and they move the puck. They did a good job of not allowing us to get inside.”David Krejci scored on the power play in the final minute of the first period to give Boston a 1-0 lead that Point erased with his unassisted goal at 10:43 of the second.Miller’s power-play goal broke the tie less than four minutes later, and Stralman added an empty-netter with 1:29 remaining.”They’re a really good team. They have been all year,” Bruins winger Brad Marchand said. ”They compete extremely hard, they have a lot of speed. They were better than we were in a lot of areas, one of them being puck battles and their pursuit. It showed up in the end.”One day after being put ”on notice” by the NHL for licking Lightning forward Ryan Callahan during Friday night’s overtime loss in Game 4, there were no more such incidents involving Marchand, who also made headlines after appearing to lick Toronto’s Leo Komarov in the first round.Marchand was given an edict Saturday to stop licking opponents or subject himself to a possible fine or suspension for future incidents.Cassidy said before the game that he had spoken with Marchand, delivering a simple, straight-forward message: ”We need you on the ice, we need you playing. If part of his M.O. is to annoy people, find a different way to annoy them. Preferably by scoring some goals, that would be the best way.”Afterward, Marchand shrugged off a question about his discussion the previous day with NHL senior vice president of hockey operations Colin Campbell.”It is what it is,” Marchand said. ”I think it’s pretty stupid, the whole situation, but if that’s what they want to do, it’s what they want to do.”The Lightning once again did a good job of containing Boston’s top line of Patrice Bergeron Los Angeles Kings Hoodies Authentic , David Pastrnak and Marchand. Although the trio combined for 23 points in the series (seven goals, 16 assists), about half that production (11 points) came in the Bruins’ 6-2 win in Game 1.Bergeron and Charlie McAvoy assisted on Krejci’s goal, but Vasilevskiy came up big against the high-scoring line with four huge saves – one on Bergeron’s point-blank shot – in the closing minutes while Tampa Bay was killing off Boston’s last power-play opportunity.The Bruins scored five goals over the final three games of the series, four of them on the power play and one short-handed.”You can’t rely on special teams every night to win games,” Marchand said. ”They help for sure, but you have to be able to produce 5-on-5.”NOTES: Bruins RW David Backes left the ice after taking a hard hit from Miller with just under eight minutes remaining in the second period. He did not return. … The Lightning improved to 5-1 in Game 5s when holding a 3-1 series lead. … Boston played without D Torey Krug, who injured his left ankle during Game 4. Nick Holden took over Krug’s spot, making his first appearance since Game 3 of Boston’s opening-round series against Toronto.— TAMPA, Fla. (AP) Filip Forsberg came up big for the Nashville Predators in his return after sitting out a game.Forsberg had two goals and an assist to lead the Predators to a 4-1 victory against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday night. He was held out of the previous night’s lopsided loss to Buffalo for maintenance purposes.”It’s a big win and a good test for us going up against one of the best teams in the league,” Forsberg said. ”This is the way it’s going to be in the playoffs, especially on the road, so it was good.”Craig Smith and Ryan Johansen also scored to help Nashville move closer to securing the first division title in franchise history, with the Predators’ magic number to clinch the Central at two points.”I think the guys played smart and that’s all on them,” Nashville coach Peter Laviolette said. ”They had a meeting. They weren’t happy with (Saturday’s loss) and they straightened it out. They played a smart, hard game, especially with the turnaround.”Tampa Bay Los Angeles Kings Hats Authentic , which went 0 for 5 on the power play, played the final two periods without captain Steven Stamkos, who left the game with an undisclosed lower-body injury. Coach Jon Cooper did not have an update on Stamkos after the game.Ondrej Palat scored while Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 21 shots for the Lightning, who have lost four of five to fall two points behind the Boston Bruins for the top spot in the Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference.”We don’t like to lose games, that’s bottom line,” Tampa Bay defenseman Victor Hedman said. ”We want to win every game. But we are looking at the big picture and hopefully there is two or three months left in the season, we want to play the right way.”Nashville opened up the scoring as Johansen led a 2-on-1 rush and pulled the puck back before beating Vasilevskiy with a wrist shot 7:50 into the game.The Predators doubled their lead early in the second with one second remaining on a power paly as Forsberg’s shot deflected off the stick of Tampa Bay defenseman Anton Stralman and trickled through Vasilevskiy’s pads at 2:46.Palat pulled the Lightning within a goal at 7:32 as he was open in the slot to take a pass from Stralman and fired a shot from between the circles for his 10th.Forsberg scored his second of the night, skating around Dan Girardi to get to the top of the crease and sip the puck under Vasilevskiy at 6:24 to make it 3-1.Smith put the game away, taking a long pass from Mattias Ekholm and skating in alone to put a shot off the inside of the far post at 9:29.”We just give up too many easy ones, they are too easy,” Cooper said. ”It’s not like they are spending an ounce of time in our zone, they just go down and find open space.”NOTES: Tampa Bay RW Ryan Callahan returned to the lineup after missing five games with an upper-body injury. … Nashville leading goal-scorer LW Viktor Arvidsson missed the game with an undisclosed lower-body injury. … The Lightning have allowed the opening goal in five consecutive games. … Forsberg is the second player in franchise history to reach 60 points three different times, joining J.P. Dumont. … Saros improved to 8-0-2 this season when starting on the second night of a back-to-back games for the PredatorsUP NEXTLightning: Host Boston on Tuesday night.Predators: At Florida on Tuesday night.