BOSTON -- A beaming Jimmy Hayes took an imaginary monkey off his back and tossed it over the glass as he waited for teammates to congratulate him behind the net.

As he skated past the bench, at least one teammate grabbed at the back of shirt.

"(David) Backes tried to grab it. It was more of a joke that it was an elephant (and not a monkey)," Hayes said after notching his first goal and first point in 36 games to help the Boston Bruins end a three-game losing streak with a 4-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday.

"I think I lost like a 100 pounds there. It felt pretty good."

It had to seem like forever.

"Yeah, it's been a while," he said. "I think it was like February or something like that. You guys update me a lot. It's been a struggle. To finally put one in is a good feeling."

Hayes, who hadn't scored since Feb. 24 against the Pittsburgh Penguins, redirected a David Krejci pass past Ben Bishop to cap a three-goal second period for the Bruins, who had scored four goals during the losing streak.

Hayes, whose brother Kevin leads the NHL in shooting percentage (28.6) and has 10 goals, had 57 shots on goal in the 35 scoreless games. Jimmy Hayes now has one goal on 34 shots this season.

Ironically, Jimmy Hayes scored the shootout winner against the Lightning on Nov. 3 in Florida.

Tuukka Rask stopped 30 Tampa Bay shots until Victor Hedman's pass deflected off the skate of defenseman Colin Miller with 2:39 left to end what would have been Rask's fourth shutout of the season.

Rask, who lowered his goals against average from 1.67 to 1.62 (second in the league), is 12-4, and the Bruins are 0-6 in games he hasn't played.

It was the fourth time this season, all this month, that Rask has lost a shutout in the final five minutes.

"Good thing I don't have a bonus for that stuff," Rask said. "That's alright. Tough bounce."

The two wins over Tampa Bay (13-9-1) this season make the Bruins 14-3-1 against the Lightning in the last 18 matchups.

Dominic Moore and Backes scored the first two Bruins goals.

Moore's sixth of the season matched his season total from last year. Backes' fifth goal as a Bruin came on a power play to beat Bishop after a Torey Krug shot and then deflections by Patrice Bergeron and Backes.

Asked about Moore, coach Claude Julien said, "He's a committed player, a veteran player. ... He's been a real good contributor for us."

David Pastrnak scored for the third straight game and for the ninth time in his last 11 when his centering pass went in off Tampa Bay's Tyler Johnson -- Krug's second assist of the game on the play -- midway through the third period.

Bishop, a 5-3 loser at home to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday night, stopped 26 shots. His team, playing without injured Steven Stamkos and Anton Stralman, has lost three of its last four, and Bishop is 0-3 during that span.

Lightning coach Jon Cooper thought his team played hard but said, "Every mistake ended up in the back of our net."

Jonathan Drouin, originally credited with the Tampa goal, said, "We started waking up and skating more in the third period. We've just got to do a better job from the get-go.

"Definitely some bad bounces didn't go our way, but we've got to be better from the get-go."

Boston defenseman John-Michael Liles left the game in the first period after sliding head/neck first into the boards.

Liles, killing a penalty five minutes into the game, ventured deep into the Lightning zone and appeared to trip over Bishop's stick and hit his head on teammate Austin Czarnik's knee. He lay motionless on his back for more than a minute before help arrived and was helped to his feet and then off the ice -- going right to the Bruins dressing room.

The club announced in the second period that he was out with an upper-body injury and would not return. Julien didn't have an update after the game.

Tampa Bay's Ondrej Palat left the game with an undisclosed injury.

NOTES: Bruins D Zdeno Chara missed his third straight game with a lower-body injury but skated on his own in the morning. ... The Lightning, who are missing C Steven Stamkos (knee), also had D Anton Stralman (upper body) miss his eighth straight game and RW J.T. Brown (upper) his third in a row. ... The Bruins killed both Tampa Bay power plays and have handled 16 straight in the last six games. ... Bruins coach Claude Julien coached his 726th game for the team, tying him with Milt Schmidt for second place on Boston's career list, 46 games behind Art Ross. ... The Bruins are 34-6-6 in their last 46 games against Tampa Bay. The Lightning have a rematch with the Blue Jackets on Tuesday night in Columbus. The Bruins visit the Philadelphia Flyers the same night.