BSJ Game Report: Bruins 5, Flyers 2 - Forbort’s 2-goal night paces Bruins past Philly

Everything you need to know from the Bruins’ 5-2 win over the Flyers with BSJ insight and analysis:

Box Score

SHORT SHIFT

Behind an unlikely offensive conduit, the Bruins landed plenty of punches against the Flyers on Broad Street Saturday night — with Derek Forbort notching his first career two-goal game to pace a 5-2 victory for Boston.

Tomas Nosek, Craig Smith and David Pastrnak also scored for the Bruins — who improve to 9-5-0 on the season. Linus Ullmark stopped 29 of the 31 shots that came his way in the victory.  

Despite a five-day layoff, the Bruins didn’t look all that rusty out of the gate at Wells Fargo Center, with the B’s holding a 21-8 edge in shots on goal through the first 20 minutes of action. But Boston didn’t get a puck past Martin Jones until 18:25 into the contest, with Nosek roofing a backhand shot into twine to make it a 1-0 game.

Forbort’s long-range shot gave Boston a two-goal cushion just 30 seconds into the second, but Philly landed a counter-punch just 52 seconds later — with Derek Brassard pouncing on a loose puck to cut into the B’s lead.

Brassard buried his second goal of the night on the power play at 9:22 to knot things up at 2-2, but an unchecked Forbort gave Boston the lead for good at 16:27 in the period, snapping a puck past Jones for his fourth goal of the season — a new career high for the stay-at-home defenseman.

Smith built up Boston’s lead with his first goal of the season at 1:28 in the third, while Pastrnak iced the game with his fifth tally of the year at 12:47.

SIX UP

Derek Forbort: After only scoring eight goals in his first 331 career games in the NHL, Forbort now has four goals in just 14 games in a Bruins sweater. Can B’s fans expect a player of Forbort’s profile to consistently light the lamp? Absolutely not. But Boston will certainly welcome any and all offensive contributions at this stage of the season.

Haula Line: If Smith is finally past his nagging injury and keeps putting together games like this, the Bruins might have something here on what has been a largely dormant third line so far this season. The trio of DeBrusk-Haula-Smith combined for five points on the night, with DeBrusk earning a pair of apples off of some strong support along the boards. An encouraging night all around for this unit.

Nosek Line: Not to be outdone, the other half of Boston’s bottom-six corps also fared pretty well in this one — with a strong forechecking shift leading to Nosek’s second goal of the season in the closing minutes of the first period. He’s not flashy, but Anton Blidh is providing some thump in place of Trent Frederic, who remains out with an upper-body injury.

Reilly-Zboril pairing: Jakub Zboril sure looks like he deserves to stay in this Bruins lineup. Along with the crisp feed that set up Pastrnak’s third-period tally, Zboril was crisp all night with puck movement, even after getting shifted over to the right side to make room for Mike Reilly’s return to the lineup. Boston outshot Philly, 7-0, when this third D pair was out on the ice during 5v5 play.

Charlie McAvoy: No points on this night for McAvoy, but he still managed to stuff the stat sheet: 23:54 of ice time, three shots, five hits and a couple of heavy punches that connected against fellow BU product Joel Farabee in a momentum-shifting bout. 

Linus Ullmark: Ullmark will likely want that first goal from Brassard back, but both the netminder and the team have to be encouraged by a performance like this (.931 save percentage), especially on the road.  

ONE DOWN

Curtis Lazar: Lazar will likely want that PK shift back that led to Brassard’s second goal, as he failed to sweep away a seam feed from Claude Giroux in the slot that resulted in a tally just seconds later. 

LOOSE PUCKS

Secondary scoring starting to break through: It’s not often you see both Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron fail to light the lamp in back-to-back games … and the Bruins still manage to secure four out of a possible four points. But if the rest of Boston’s roster can continue to chip in offensively like they’ve done the last few games, this team is really tough to topple. Of course, they’re not going to have 11 different skaters record a point each and every game, but Bruce Cassidy and his staff have to be encouraged by the fact that multiple lines appear to be gaining some traction.

Response goals are still an issue: Boston’s secondary scoring might be improving, but this club’s issues with surrendering response goals continue to plague it. After Brassard lit the lamp 52 seconds after Forbort’s first goal of the evening, the B’s have now coughed up seven goals within two minutes of scoring themselves. Gotta correct that. 

PLAY OF THE GAME

Sweet feed — and a sweet finish — on Pastrnak’s goal in the third.

PARTING THOUGHTS

LOOKING AHEAD

The Bruins will be right back at it on Sunday night, with the B’s set to host the Flames at TD Garden. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m.