Milan Lucic scores twice as red-hot Bruins beat Leafs for 12th win in 13 games

After putting the finishing touches on a near-perfect month, the Boston Bruins are looking like Stanley Cup favourites once again.

Milan Lucic scored twice and David Krejci added a goal and two assists Wednesday as the Bruins beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-3 to retake first place in the Northeast Division.

It’s been a remarkable turnaround for the defending champions after a slow start to the year. Boston finished November with a 12-0-1 record, making it the Original Six franchise’s first month without a regulation loss since January 1969.

Tim Thomas continues to lead the way and picked up his ninth straight victory with a 34-save performance against the Maple Leafs.

Zdeno Chara, Benoit Pouliot and Brad Marchand had the other goals for Boston (15-7-1), which last lost in regulation on Oct. 29 in Montreal.

Mikhail Grabovski, Joffrey Lupul and Matt Frattin replied for Toronto (14-9-2).

The Leafs pushed the Bruins to their limit in the first of back-to-back meetings between teams hovering around the top of the Eastern Conference. They’ll go at it again in Boston on Saturday night.

A game with plenty of pre-game hype managed to live up to its billing. The quick skating teams took turns mounting rushes during a first period that saw the Bruins hold a slight edge in possession and shots, 17-16.

But the score was 1-1 thanks to a pair of power-play goals.

Grabovski opened the scoring for Toronto at 7:29 after taking a perfect cross-ice pass from Clarke MacArthur and beating Thomas with a backhander on the rush. It was his sixth goal of the season.

Jonas Gustavsson had a strong showing early for the Maple Leafs but was finally beaten after an extended 5-on-3 man advantage. Boston used crisp cross-ice passes to blow the Leafs penalty kill apart before Lucic roofed a shot from the side of the net at 15:08 as the first penalty expired.

Shortly after, NHL scoring leader Phil Kessel was sent in on a breakaway but couldn’t beat Thomas with a deke.

The game didn’t slow down any in the second period. Krejci gave the Bruins a 2-1 lead at 3:33 by going hard to the net and knocking home a rebound off the rush before Kessel found Lupul on a 2-on-1 to even things up at 7:00.

Even Chara’s goal to make it 3-2 at 15:30 came off the rush. The big defenceman stepped up and beat Gustavsson short side with a heavy wrist shot the Leafs goalie should have had.

There was very little separating the teams. Pouliot put Boston ahead 4-2 early in the third period and Frattin responded less than three minutes later to get Toronto back within a goal. They wouldn’t bridge the gap.

Lucic put it away with his second of the night at 15:21 before Marchand hit the empty net in the final minute.