The Boston Bruins wanted to point out one thing, something actually, as their West Coast highway journey moved into Vancouver on Saturday night time.
They had been had been dwelling in a nightmare to start their measuring stick stretch of video games, struggling back-to-back blowout losses by a mixed 13-2 margin. A 3rd straight defeat by a lopsided quantity would have despatched darkish clouds circling the workforce.
As a substitute, the Bruins awoke in Vancouver and delivered a much-needed response in opposition to the Canucks.
The Bruins performed one in every of their most full video games of the season, driving the momentum of two first-period targets to bury the Canucks, 5-1, at Rogers Area.
Leaping out to a fast begin was crucial for the Bruins, who hadn’t held a lead in regulation since Dec. 4 in opposition to the Chicago Blackhawks. Brad Marchand opened the scoring 5:12 into the primary interval as David Pastrnak and Elias Lindholm arrange the Bruins captain on the ability play. The early objective signaled this sport could be totally different for the Bruins than their matchups in opposition to the Winnipeg Jets and Seattle Kraken. Morgan Geekie’s tally, practically three minutes after Marchand scored, solely cemented that notion and gave the Bruins as many targets as they scored of their earlier two video games.
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The Bruins might have eased up and relied on Jeremy Swayman, who was sturdy in web with 19 saves, to deliver dwelling the win. However Boston stored pushing offensively, scoring simply 1:12 into the second interval when Pastrnak gathered a puck alongside the boards round heart ice and dished a terrific feed to ship Pavel Zacha in on their lonesome to beat Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko. It was Pastrnak’s third help of the sport and he added a third-period objective for a four-point night time.
Boston stored the stress on Demko, scoring twice extra to cruise to a win. Demko, who made simply his second begin of the season after lacking two months resulting from restoration from a knee harm, actually was an attention-grabbing selection to start out between the pipes after Kevin Lankinen notched a 33-save shutout in opposition to the Bruins virtually three weeks in the past on the TD Backyard ice.
Vancouver simply appears to be a great matchup for Boston. The Bruins outshot the Canucks, 33-14, within the first matchup however had nothing to point out for it in a 2-0 loss. This time round, they noticed the fruits of their labor.
And by exiting Vancouver with a convincing win, the Bruins put themselves in a significantly better place to vary the outlook of this pivotal highway journey, particularly if they’ll get factors of their matchups with the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers earlier than heading again to Boston.
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