Phil Kessel had a goal and two assists to extend his NHL-best points streak to 14 games, and the Boston Bruins scored four times on their first five shots in a 7-3 victory over the Atlanta Thrashers on Friday night.

Kessel had an assist in the first-period spree, then added a power-play goal and another assist in the third period. He leads Boston with 18 goals and has 11 assists.

Defenseman Mark Stuart had two goals for the Bruins, scoring the first and last goals to help Boston match its highest-scoring game of the season. Zdeno Chara, Michael Ryder, Stephane Yelle and Milan Lucic also scored.

The Bruins, coming off a loss in Washington on Wednesday night that snapped a five-game winning streak, are 15-2-1 since the end of October and a have a seven-point lead over second-place Montreal in the Northeast Division.

Boris Valabik scored his first NHL goal for Atlanta, and Todd White and Slava Kozlov added goals. The Thrashers are 2-8-2 in their last 12 games.

Boston, which had been outshot 6-0, scored goals 37 seconds apart on its first two shots. Stuart converted a feed from David Krejci at 3:31, and Yelle's beat Ondrej Pevelec between the pads at 4:08.

Chara scored on a wraparound at 8:41 after a pass from Kessel, and Pavelec was pulled in favor of Johan Hedberg after giving up three goals on four shots. Hedberg didn't start off much better than Pavelec, allowing Ryder's power-play goal at 11:56 on the first shot he faced.

White scored a power-play goal for Atlanta at 16:16 of the first period, knocking a deflected shot from the point by Ilya Kovalchuk past goalie Tim Thomas.

Atlanta's Joey Crabb drew a boarding penalty and game misconduct for a hit on Kessel with 2:20 left in the second period, and Kessel cashed in the 5-minute power play with his goal at 1:15 of the third period.

Valabik scored his first NHL goal unassisted at 3:14 of the final period, blasting in a shot from the point. But the defenseman was victimized on a Boston goal at 7:19 of the period when Lucic's pass went off him and into the net.

Paclec returned to replace Hedberg in goal after Stuart scored on a shot from the point with 9:57 left in the game.

Kozlov scored on a power-play goal for Atlanta with 7 minutes remaining. Kovalchuk, pick up his second assist of the game on the play, giving him 33 points in 26 career games against the Bruins.

(Thanks to the Associated Press for the assist)

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Bruins Thrash Thrashers
Friday, 12 December 2008
Phil Kessel had a goal and two assists to extend his NHL-best points streak to 14 games, and the Boston Bruins scored four times on their first...

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