Bruins 7, Hurricanes 1: Bergeron leads rout of Carolina | VIDEO

Saturday
Jan 6, 2018 at 9:45 PM

BOSTON — Patrice Bergeron certainly didn’t sound like he felt 100 percent healthy on Saturday night, but he played like he never felt better.


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Bergeron, in fact, not only never had a more [...]

By Mike Loftus The Quincy Patriot Ledger

BOSTON — Patrice Bergeron certainly didn’t sound like he felt 100 percent healthy on Saturday night, but he played like he never felt better.

 

Bergeron, in fact, not only never had a more productive game than he did in the Bruins’ 7-1 rout of the Hurricanes at TD Garden, but very few players in franchise history have topped parts of it, either.

 

Four goals tied a franchise record. Five points tied his personal best.

 

“It was just one of those nights when the puck was going in,” said Bergeron, who also became just the seventh player in franchise history to reach 700 career points as the B’s extended their points streak to 10 games (8-0-2) with their third straight victory.

 

Actually, it wasn’t just “one of those nights” for Bergeron; merely a night that resulted in more production than usual.

 

“It’s every night,” B’s captain Zdeno Chara. “(Bergeron) does so much for this hockey club. He plays a 200-foot game, does all those little things that we ask from him.

 

“You can’t help but to be happy for a player like that, who does so much for the team.”

 

Bergeron, who felt fortunate that Thursday’s scheduled game against the Panthers was postponed by snow — “I wasn’t feeling too hot,” he said — picked a perfect time to have such a big night. He led the way as the B’s jumped to a 5-1 lead in the first 15 minutes, making it possible for ice time to be spread evenly heading into Sunday’s road game against the Penguins (7:35, NBC Sports Network, WBZ-FM 98.5), after which the Bruins begin their bye week.

 

The Hurricanes came to the Garden on a 7-2-1 run that pushed them ahead of the Penguins in the battle for the second and final Eastern Conference wildcard playoff slot, but the B’s never let them look like that. The Bruins scored on their first two shots to chase starter Cam Ward after only 5 minutes, 43 seconds, and added three more goals after No. 2 goalie Scott Darling tried to give the ’Canes a spark.

 

Bergeron (shorthanded, at 3:14) and ex-Hurricane Riley Nash scored remarkably similar goals to give the B’s their 2-0 lead. Both fired from the right circle on 2-on-1 breaks; both hit the near side relatively easily, and Ward left abruptly.

 

Darling gave the Hurricanes life by stopping Brad Marchand — who went on to record a career-high four assists — on a short-handed breakaway as Tim Schaller served a delay-of-game penalty. The Hurricanes eventually converted that into Jordan Staal’s power-play goal at 7:09, making it a 2-1 game.

 

Less than two minutes later, though, the Bruins punched their lead back up to two goals when David Pastrnak, goal-less in his previous 10 games, connected on a power play at 9:04. Bergeron had the primary assist.

 

“It’s our power play, our turn to answer,” Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. “That’s a turning point. They may have thought they had life.”

 

Within another 5:30, the B’s had completed their first five-goal period since Jan. 13, 2011, when they hung on for a 7-5 victory over the Flyers.

 

Bergeron reached another milestone by the end of the period, too: After opening the scoring and feeding Pastrnak for his power-play one-timer, he netted his second of the night at 14:34 for his third point of the game, and No. 700 for his career.

 

He wasn’t finished, either.

 

Bergeron completed just the second trick of his career 5:36 into the second period, rapping the rebound of a Marchand shot past Darling. Just over five minutes later, he scored his fourth of the night, finishing a Pastrnak pass on a rush started by Marchand.

 

Bergeron’s fourth goal tied a team record, making him the 16th Bruin to do so and the first since Dave Andreychuk on Oct. 28, 1999. It pushed Bergeron up to five points for the night, tying his best performance of his career: He had a five-assist night on Dec. 19, 2005, against Ottawa.

 

Ex-Hurricane Anton Khudobin earned a 27-save victory.

 

 

Saturday
Jan 6, 2018 at 9:45 PM

BOSTON — Patrice Bergeron certainly didn’t sound like he felt 100 percent healthy on Saturday night, but he played like he never felt better.


[gh:div class="s2nPlayer-zyGI9VRlr2-365305-4478" data-type="single"][/gh:div][gh:script type="text/javascript" src="https://embed.sendtonews.com/player2/embedcode.php?SC=zyGI9VRlr2-365305-4478&autoplay=on&sound=off" data-type="s2nScript"][/gh:script]


 


Bergeron, in fact, not only never had a more [...]

By Mike Loftus The Quincy Patriot Ledger

BOSTON — Patrice Bergeron certainly didn’t sound like he felt 100 percent healthy on Saturday night, but he played like he never felt better.

 

Bergeron, in fact, not only never had a more productive game than he did in the Bruins’ 7-1 rout of the Hurricanes at TD Garden, but very few players in franchise history have topped parts of it, either.

 

Four goals tied a franchise record. Five points tied his personal best.

 

“It was just one of those nights when the puck was going in,” said Bergeron, who also became just the seventh player in franchise history to reach 700 career points as the B’s extended their points streak to 10 games (8-0-2) with their third straight victory.

 

Actually, it wasn’t just “one of those nights” for Bergeron; merely a night that resulted in more production than usual.

 

“It’s every night,” B’s captain Zdeno Chara. “(Bergeron) does so much for this hockey club. He plays a 200-foot game, does all those little things that we ask from him.

 

“You can’t help but to be happy for a player like that, who does so much for the team.”

 

Bergeron, who felt fortunate that Thursday’s scheduled game against the Panthers was postponed by snow — “I wasn’t feeling too hot,” he said — picked a perfect time to have such a big night. He led the way as the B’s jumped to a 5-1 lead in the first 15 minutes, making it possible for ice time to be spread evenly heading into Sunday’s road game against the Penguins (7:35, NBC Sports Network, WBZ-FM 98.5), after which the Bruins begin their bye week.

 

The Hurricanes came to the Garden on a 7-2-1 run that pushed them ahead of the Penguins in the battle for the second and final Eastern Conference wildcard playoff slot, but the B’s never let them look like that. The Bruins scored on their first two shots to chase starter Cam Ward after only 5 minutes, 43 seconds, and added three more goals after No. 2 goalie Scott Darling tried to give the ’Canes a spark.

 

Bergeron (shorthanded, at 3:14) and ex-Hurricane Riley Nash scored remarkably similar goals to give the B’s their 2-0 lead. Both fired from the right circle on 2-on-1 breaks; both hit the near side relatively easily, and Ward left abruptly.

 

Darling gave the Hurricanes life by stopping Brad Marchand — who went on to record a career-high four assists — on a short-handed breakaway as Tim Schaller served a delay-of-game penalty. The Hurricanes eventually converted that into Jordan Staal’s power-play goal at 7:09, making it a 2-1 game.

 

Less than two minutes later, though, the Bruins punched their lead back up to two goals when David Pastrnak, goal-less in his previous 10 games, connected on a power play at 9:04. Bergeron had the primary assist.

 

“It’s our power play, our turn to answer,” Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. “That’s a turning point. They may have thought they had life.”

 

Within another 5:30, the B’s had completed their first five-goal period since Jan. 13, 2011, when they hung on for a 7-5 victory over the Flyers.

 

Bergeron reached another milestone by the end of the period, too: After opening the scoring and feeding Pastrnak for his power-play one-timer, he netted his second of the night at 14:34 for his third point of the game, and No. 700 for his career.

 

He wasn’t finished, either.

 

Bergeron completed just the second trick of his career 5:36 into the second period, rapping the rebound of a Marchand shot past Darling. Just over five minutes later, he scored his fourth of the night, finishing a Pastrnak pass on a rush started by Marchand.

 

Bergeron’s fourth goal tied a team record, making him the 16th Bruin to do so and the first since Dave Andreychuk on Oct. 28, 1999. It pushed Bergeron up to five points for the night, tying his best performance of his career: He had a five-assist night on Dec. 19, 2005, against Ottawa.

 

Ex-Hurricane Anton Khudobin earned a 27-save victory.

 

 

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