BSJ Game Report: Bruins 4, Canadiens 1 - Pastrnak lifts B’s past Habs

Everything you need to know from the Bruins’ 4-1 win over the Canadiens in quickie form, with BSJ insight and analysis:

Box Score

HEADLINES

David Pastrnak reaches another level: David Pastrnak was due on Wednesday. After all, it had been a whopping four games and 11 total days since the B’s winger had lit the lamp. Kidding aside, Pastrnak picked a good time to snap out of his scoring “drought” on Wednesday, tallying his fourth hat trick of the season to lead the Bruins past the Canadiens, 4-1, at TD Garden. Pastrnak, who leapfrogged Alex Ovechkin and Auston Matthews in the Rocket Richard Trophy race, is now up to 41 goals through 58 games played this season — with the 23-year-old skater surpassing the 40-goal threshold for the first time in his impressive young career. 

Boston, which has now won seven of its last eight games, gave itself some breathing room in the Atlantic, putting three points between it and the surging Lightning for first place within the division. Good defense led to offense throughout the night for the Bruins — as Brad Marchand set up Pastrnak’s opening tally of the evening at 6:59 in the first after intercepting a Jonathan Drouin pass in the neutral zone and feeding his linemate during an impressive dangle-fest through three skaters. Pastrnak generated his second goal with a nifty play in Boston’s own zone, knocking the puck off of Jeff Petry’s stick and jumpstarting a 2-on-1 scoring sequence with Sean Kuraly. Pastrnak capped off the rush with his 40th goal of the year — becoming the first Bruins skater to light the lamp 40 times in a single season since Glen Murray reached 44 tallies during the 2002-03 campaign. 

https://twitter.com/ConorRyan_93/status/1227772851186475008

Montreal answered back 36 seconds later off of a Marco Scandella wrister from the high slot, but Boston snuffed out any chance of a Habs rally later in the second period — with Pastrnak capping off his hat trick with a power-play tally at 15:45. 

https://twitter.com/ConorRyan_93/status/1227778649920876546

Tuukka Rask shut the door in the third, stopping all 10 shots came his way in the period en route to a 28-save performance, while Patrice Bergeron added an empty-netter with 20 seconds left on the clock. 

THREE UP

David Pastrnak: Well, this one was easy. The league leader in goals scored once again, Pastrnak joined Alex Ovechkin (40 goals) as the only two players in the NHL to tally four hat tricks this season. The only Bruin with more hat tricks in a single season? Phil Esposito with a whopping seven during the 1970-71 season. 

https://twitter.com/NHLBruins/status/1227804248752168960

Tuukka Rask: In what was an up-tempo, chippy game for most of the night, the Canadiens did manage to generate quite a few quality looks in front of Rask — but the B’s netminder turned aside all five high-danger shots that came his way. Since returning from a concussion last month, Rask has posted a .957 save percentage over his last five outings. 

Penalty kill: Boston once again won the special-teams battle on Wednesday night, with its penalty kill leading the way. Montreal may not boast the most impressive man advantage in the NHL (20th overall with an 18.9% success rate), but the Habs only managed to generate two scoring chances over 6:12 of 5v4 ice time against the B’s. 



Kuraly Line: Handed the tough task of stopping the Habs’ top line of Tomas Tatar, Phillip Danault and Brendan Gallagher, the reunited Kuraly line (with Joakim Nordstrom back in the fold after a four-game absence) held their own when it came to limiting scoring chances down the other end of the ice.

“They started the game, that was their task tonight, to play against — Montreal’s got balance in their lineup, but Gallagher is one of their, to me is their guy that can really get it going for them,” Bruce Cassidy said. “Danault is a solid player and obviously Tatar is, I think, their leading scorer, so. That’s the assignment they had most of the night and I thought they handled it well. Pitched in offensively, did the job on the kill. Physically were able to deliver in that area. Great game for them, to me, to see them hopefully — well, they definitely take a step forward and hopefully keep taking some steps forward. 

“We’ve talked about wanting to get that line together, that’s certainly one of goals here with the amount of games left, to make sure we try to build their game as much as possible. There’s going to be nights when we move people in and out because of  back-to-backs or whatnot, but in general, we like to see that line recapture where they were last year. I think it will make us a much better team.”

ONE DOWN

John Moore: Moore had a few adventures in his own zone on Wednesday night, especially with battles behind the Bruins’ net. With Jeremy Lauzon set to return from suspension and Connor Clifton getting closer and closer to a return, it will be curious to see where Moore fits in the rest of Boston’s D corps. 

PLAY OF THE GAME

Pastrnak might have had the hatty, but Marchand stole the show with this absurd set-up on Pastrnak’s opening tally at 6:59 in the first.

https://twitter.com/ConorRyan_93/status/1227758115896078336

PARTING THOUGHTS

Word to the wise — if you’re in a scrap with a guy that outweighs you by close to 60 pounds, just don't. 5-foot-9 Brendan Gallagher learned that the hard way after getting mixed up with 6-foot-9 Zdeno Chara. 

https://twitter.com/PeteBlackburn/status/1227772873017843712

LOOKING AHEAD

The Bruins will wrap up their brief two-game homestand on Saturday afternoon against — *gasp* — the Detroit Red Wings. Yep, the same cellar-dwelling Red Wings that have beat Boston in five straight games. Puck drop is set for 1 p.m.