The Bruins have ended their 10-game losing streak as Pastrnak’s line dominates in win.
David Pastrnak notched five-points with a natural hat trick to boost the Boston Bruins, 5-1, past the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday night at the TD Garden.
The win ended a 10-game losing streak for the Bruins.
Pastrnak and linemates Morgan Geekie and Elias Lindholm accounted for all of the Bruins’ goals, driving the offense on even strength play. Geekie also had a five-goal night, racking up one goal and four assists. Jeremy Swayman made 39 saves to pick up his 100th win which ended a streak of seven losses for the netminder.
“It’s been fun, today’s game, obviously it’s been a tough couple of weeks so good on us,” Pastrnak said. “(I’m) proud of the group, the effort and the blocked shots and the commitment to win today was there.”
The Bruins netted two late, first-period goals from Geekie and Lindholm to go up 2-0 over the Hurricanes after the first. Then Pastrnak extended the Bruins’ lead with a goal in the third period and two in the third.
Justin Robidas scored his first NHL goal to steal the shutout from the Bruins in the game’s final minute of play.
Despite picking up the two points, the Bruins can’t mathematically catch any team in the wild card race and were eliminated from postseason contention.
Interim head coach Joe Sacco said the win was important for the locker room’s mindset and to hear the support from the fans in the crowd again.
“I think with the stretch that we’ve been on here, it’s nice to have the guys feel good about themselves here tonight,” Sacco said.
Here are the game’s highlights:
First period:
David Pastrnak backhanded a pass from the neutral zone to Morgan Geekie where he skated into the offensive zone and threw a snap shot at Frederik Andersen that beat him five-hole at 18:49 of the first period. 1-0 Bruins.
Pastrnak threw a pass out front where Elias Lindholm, in the paint, collected it and put it past Andersen with 12.8 seconds left in the first period. 2-0 Bruins.
Second period:
From low along the goal line, Pastrnak spun around and sent a wrist shot on net from a hard angle that snuck past Andersen at 10:14 of the second period. 3-0 Bruins.
Third period:
Pastrnak knocked down a backhanded pass by Geekie to get the puck top shelf past Andersen’s blocker at 1:28 of the third period. 4-0 Bruins.
Off the rush, Geekie slid a pass to Pastrnak heading into the left-wing circle where he skated in the slot, faked out Andersen and slid in a low shot at 15:18 of the third period. 5-0 Bruins.
Justin Robidas controlled a rebound to quickly release a shot past Jeremy Swayman’ blocker for his first NHL goal at 19:05 of the third period. Final score: 5-1 Bruins.
Game notes
- Pastrnak and Sacco talked postgame about the team’s effort to compete tonight. While there were mistakes, it was closer to a full, 60-minute effort that the team is looking to close out the remainder of the regular season.
- “Obviously we would like to help Sway get the shutout. I’m not sure what happened but obviously I’m super proud of the group.” He emphasized there were guys making big blocks and guys were doing a lot of little things right that didn’t show up on the scoresheet. Pastrnak also thought the Bruins held onto the puck better int he offensive zone tonight.
- Pastrnak’s hat trick night led him to his fifth career, 40-goal season and fourth time he’s reached more than 90 points in a season. Per the Bruins, it was his third career five-point game and first ever natural hat trick. Pastrnak now has 19 hat tricks.
- Soundbite of Sacco on Pastrnak: “He’s one of those guys, the great players they just want to keep going and going and that’s what he’s been able to do. tonight was a big night…he sees himself as a guy who just wants to rive offense and keep pushing.”
- The victory snapped a seven-game losing streak for Swayman. Sacco said it felt like it was a matter of time that Swayman would see a win. He felt Swayman had played well in the last few starts and to get in that rhythm was only a matter of time. Swayman made some big, timely saves tonight and was really standing on his head.
- Postgame, Swayman said it was a huge relief to get a win, “gratifying,” he said, and get the losing streak off his back. He then talked about the locker room’s reaction to the win. “It’s so great to see the guy happy again,” Swayman said. “It’s a feeling that we missed.”
- Fraser Minten played in his first game as a Bruin after being called up. said report of him held true. He felt he had a steady game and won key faceoffs on his off side. acco said he could tell that Minten had good hockey sense. “He was on the right side of the puck quite a bit tonight so I thought it was a good first game.
- The Bruins will be back in action on Tuesday to play the New Jersey Devils at 7 p.m. on the road.