As he was quick to note following Wednesday's victory over the Lightning, Boston Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask was in desperate need of some good news.

Or just two points, to be exact.

The veteran netminder has been on the ropes this month -- winless since Nov. 6 and riding the bench for four straight games after posting a 3-7-2 record to open the season.

During that stretch, the play of backup Anton Khudobin (7-0-2, 2.22 GAA, .932 Sv%) has created a bit of a goaltending controversy -- raising questions about Rask's role as No. 1 goaltender and setting the stage for a major test against the Lightning.

Rask was up to the task against the top team in the Eastern Conference, stopping 19 of the 21 shots that came his way -- stymying a late surge from the Lightning en route to a 3-2 victory.

"I need it," Rask said. "I need it, but it was good to see."

Rask wasn't tested too often in the first, with Tampa's skilled forward corps only firing five shots on goal over the first 20 minutes of play. While Rask was able to sit back a bit, his skaters in front of him took care of business -- firing 19 shots and scoring a pair of goals against Lightning netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy.

It was a change of pace from Rask's last start on Sunday -- a 4-2 loss to the Oilers where Rask stopped 32 shots but Boston only landed 11 shots on net thought 40 minutes.

"I think it was kind of a flip-flop from the last game where we came out and had a really good first 35, 45 minutes and then kind of, you know, you're up two goals," Bruins forward Riley Nash said. "It's a tough position to be in, you don't want to make mistakes but you don't want to sit back, and I thought (Rask) did a really good job - shut the door, made some big saves when we needed them, and we ended up getting those two points, get the win in regulation which is huge."

As expected, Tampa Bay made a push as the contest dragged on, cutting into what was a 3-0 Boston lead after Andrej Sustr blasted the puck home at 10:53 into the second.

Rask then posted the save of the night in the closing minutes of the period -- going post-to-post to rob sniper Nikita Kucherov of his 18th goal of the year with 31 seconds to go until intermission.

"Those are the saves the people expect you to make, and you talk about after the game that, 'You should have saved that and keep the lead,' and now you talk that it was a timely save," Rask said of his save on Kucherov. "So it's something that you always do, you want to do, and you try to do, and hopefully more often than not you actually save those."

Rask stopped nine shots in the third to put an end to Tampa's potential rally, turning aside a tip attempt from Ryan Callahan in the closing minutes of regulation to seal the win.

"Timely saves" have been lacking at times this season for Rask, according to Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy. But Wednesday's performance was certainly a step in the right direction.

"We talk about the goaltender needing to make saves and then the team playing well in front of him and that's where it got away from us," Cassidy said. "So that's where he helped himself big time tonight. That's what we need."

Even with Wednesday's victory, the talks of a growing goaltending controversy likely won't be going away soon given Khudobin's production -- but Cassidy reiterated once again that it's not entirely a bad thing.

"I think we said this and we're sticking with it - we need both goaltenders to be good for us to excel as a team," Cassidy said. "Tuukka needs his reps as well. He's a good goalie, we've said that all along, and tonight we got three for him, he made the big save - everything we talked about.

"He made those big saves and we got him the extra goal and he got the extra saves. So, you know, like I said, we get both goalies at the top of their game, we're going to be a really good hockey club."