Emil Lilleberg scores late as Lightning beat Bruins 2-1; Boston clinches playoff spot later

BOSTON (AP) — Emil Lilleberg scored on a rebound with 95 seconds left to help the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Boston Bruins 2-1 on Saturday, snapping a three-game losing streak.

Deprived of the chance to win and get in, Boston clinched hours later when Detroit lost in regulation to New Jersey and the Red Wings were eliminated from contention.

Brandon Hagel also scored and Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 19 shots for Tampa Bay, which had already clinched a spot in the postseason but had fallen to third in the Atlantic Division.

Morgan Geekie scored and Jeremy Swayman made 22 saves for Boston, which has lost five in a row. The Bruins fell to the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference with their loss and Ottawa's victory at the New York Islanders.

The Bruins broke the scoreless tie midway through the second period when Charlie McAvoy found Geekie streaking through the middle of the ice, ahead of the defense. Geekie gathered the puck as he crossed between the faceoff circles and beat Vasilevskiy glove side, just inside the post.

Tampa Bay tied it with 13 minutes left when Hagel got behind the Bruins defense and wristed it through Swayman’s legs. It stayed that way until Swayman left a rebound to his left and Lilleberg was there to punch it in.

Tampa Bay: Wrap things up with home games against Detroit on Monday and the Rangers on Wednesday.

Boston: Visit Columbus on Sunday and host New Jersey on Tuesday to finish the regular season.

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL

Boston Bruins center Casey Mittelstadt (11) and Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Emil Lilleberg (78) chase the puck behind the Lightning net during the first period of an NHL hockey game, Saturday, April 11, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Tampa Bay Lightning center Brayden Point, center, battles for a loose puck with Boston Bruins defenseman Hampus Lindholm (27) in front of Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman during an NHL hockey game, Saturday, April 11, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Boston Bruins left wing Tanner Jeannot shoots against the Tampa Bay Lightning during the first period of an NHL hockey game, Saturday, April 11, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Boston Bruins center Morgan Geekie (39) celebrates his goal during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Saturday, April 11, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Boston Bruins right wing David Pastrnak (88) gets tangled with Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy (88) during the first period of an NHL hockey game, Saturday, April 11, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

BANGKOK (AP) — Heavy rains threatened to delay the search for two people missing in a flooded cave in Laos on Sunday, after the rescue of five other people who were trapped underground for over a week.

Finnish diver Mikko Paasi, one of the first international rescuers to arrive at the site, told The Associated Press that rains had filled the cave up to the second chamber, preventing divers from entering the cave until pumps can lower the water level.

The seven villagers reportedly entered the cave last week to look for valuable minerals before being trapped by a flash flood that blocked their way out. One other villager escaped and alerted the authorities.

Rescue teams from Laos and neighboring Thailand have been working together in the past week at the site in a rugged area in the central province of Xaisomboun, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of the capital, Vientiane. They were joined by divers from countries including Finland, Malaysia, Japan, Indonesia, France and Australia.

Several of the rescuers previously took part in the complicated 2018 cave rescue in northern Thailand that saved 12 schoolboys and their soccer coach from a flooded cave.

The rescued men are being treated at a local hospital and are doing well, Malaysian diver Lee Kian Lie, who’s taking part in the operation, told the AP on Sunday.

“We interviewed them about how the deeper part of the cave looks like. We will continue to search based on the information we have, and perhaps we will be able to get to the other two,” he said.

According to rescuers, they have navigated more than 200 meters into the cave and discovered five chambers in the system. The five people rescued so far were found in the fifth chamber.

Paasi told the AP that the survivors said there’s a narrow crack in the fifth chamber that could be a passage leading to a deeper part of the cave system.

“This was the only place that we haven’t checked in the mine, where the two lost miners could still be,” he said during a video interview.

“Now there’s a theory that, through that small crack, it still continues, and there’s a sixth chamber, which gives us hope now that, if we could penetrate that small restriction, we might be able to reach the sixth chamber and then see what is there.”

The five people who have been rescued were first found Wednesday. They were identified by their first names as Khamla, Mued, Ee, Ing and Laen.

The first man was safely evacuated on Friday, guided through a narrow flooded passage by an expert diver. The remaining four left the cave on Saturday after the water receded enough for them to walk out on their own, rescuers said.

Videos posted online Saturday by rescuers at the site showed emotional moments as the men emerged one by one from the cave. Some collapsed on the ground at the cave’s entrance, and were hugged by a group of workers who cried in joy. Later moments showed them lying on a stretcher, wrapped in foil blankets and fitted with an oxygen mask before being transported out of the site.

In this image taken from an online interview, Finnish diver Mikko Paasi speaks to the Associated Press on the latest situation around search and rescue in a flooded cave in Xaisomboun province, Laos Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo)