By: Tom Calautti | Follow me on Twitter/X @TCalauttis
Special teams were the story of the night as the Boston Bruins converted on three of four power plays and killed seven of seven penalties to coast to a 6-1 victory. David Pastrnak (2-2-4), Morgan Geekie (1-2-3), and Matt Poitras (1-1-2) all had multiple points in the win.
The B’s knew that special teams were going to be a factor coming into tonight’s game, given how potent Utah’s two units have been to start the season. In the four games they played thus far, the Mammoth were a scorching 8-for-13 (61.5%) on the power play and 13-for-14 (92.9%) on the kill.
“We were good, prepared. I thought Matt (McIlvane) did a good job there on the pre-scout,” said head coach Marco Sturm of his team’s perfect penalty kill. “We took away the, especially on the top units, their special players and their weapons where they scored most of their goals from. So we did a good job.”
The penalty kill was a major factor in the game, but it was Boston’s sputtering power play that finally came alive and injected some life into the building. To this point in the season, the Black and Gold had scored exactly zero goals on the man-advantage. Last night, that changed in a major way as the team’s top unit put up a three-spot en route to the victory.
One other big storyline coming into last night’s game was Sturm’s shaking up of his top nine forwards. After two games of anemic offensive efforts, Boston’s bench boss put his lines in the blender and gave his team exactly the spark they needed.
The newly reworked third line of Casey Mittelstadt, Elias Lindholm, and James Hagens got the scoring started just over halfway through the first period. Lindholm forced a turnover along the boards, and the puck found Hagens in the high slot. He slipped a pass to Mittelstadt at the dot, who sniped a wrister over goaltender Sebastian Cossa’s right shoulder to give Boston the early lead.
After that goal, the floodgates opened. Boston’s power play got its first opportunity of the night just over four minutes later and scored off the opening draw. Lindholm won the faceoff back to Frederic Brunet, who made a nifty move and pass to beat two defenders and find Pastrnak at the top of the circle. He wristed one through traffic that beat Cossa five-hole and doubled the lead.
Cossa’s night would end almost 1:30 later when Mason Lohrei scored his first of the season. The silky defender gathered a Poitras pass at the point and walked down the boards before cutting in at the dot and wristing one past the struggling netminder to extend the lead to three.
The Mammoth pulled Cossa in an attempt to spark offense and prevent the game from getting out of hand, but all they could do was survive until the end of the first period. Boston got back to work quickly in the second, scoring two consecutive power-play goals, both less than ten minutes into the final frame.
The first one came courtesy of the patented David Pastrnak one-timer. Morgan Geekie fed a sweet saucer pass across the zone that landed perfectly on Pastrnak’s tape as he hammered the puck past the new goaltender, Karel Vejmelka. Then, a little over three minutes later, Pastrnak returned the favor and hit Geekie with a cross-seam pass that he one-timed home to make the lead 5-0.
With his second tally of the night, Pastrnak tied Brad Marchand for fourth on Boston’s all-time scoring list. His two assists on the night tied him with Wayne Cashman for eighth on Boston’s all-time assist list.
“It’s tough to put into words,” said Geekie of the impact Pastrnak has had on this franchise. “So I think for, for him just to see the way that he’s kind of blossomed as a leader kinda just attributes to how good of a player he can be to, you know, have that on his plate and continue to perform and produce at the rate that he does. So, um, it’s not surprising to anybody in here, I don’t think, and, um, you know, he’s gonna continue to be a great player for a long time.”
The Bruins capped off their scoring for the night just seconds after killing a Will Borgen minor. Tanner Jeannot helped free up a puck in the neutral zone, and Pastrnak hopped over the boards and drove the net on a two-on-one. He slid the puck to Matt Poitras, who made no mistake in beating Vejmelka for Boston’s sixth of the night.
The offense was the story tonight, but Jeremy Swayman held up his end of the bargain as well. Boston’s netminder made some key saves early to keep the game knotted at zero and finished the night with 36 saves on 37 shots.
The Bruins are back over .500 and will look to continue their winning ways Saturday against the Philadelphia Flyers. That’ll be the team’s last home game before they head out on their first West Coast road trip of the season.
Game Notes
- Brunet’s assist on Pastrnak’s goal was the first point of his NHL career.
- Eleven different Bruins registered a point in this game.
- Marco Sturm had the quote of the night when asked about the line changes postgame. He said, “I could see it in you guys’ eyes yesterday. You probably thought, ‘What is he doing?’ Right? I’m not dumb,” with a smirk after hearing the question.
- Will Borgen had three minor penalties in a row in the second period. His own natural hat-trick of sorts.
- Utah acquired goalie Sebastian Cossa, who surrendered three goals in the first, with one of the draft picks Boston sent their way in the JJ Peterka trade.
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