Patrice Bergeron's four-goal game led the Bruins' third straight victory, and 10th straight game with at least one point.
Patrice Bergeron may never have a better night, and he couldn’t have picked a better night for it.
On a Saturday night marked by records and milestones, Bergeron scored four goals and added an assist to help the Bruins pound the Hurricanes, 7-1, at TD Garden. The B’s, who had a 5-1 lead within 15 minutes, were able to spread out their ice time the rest of the way, leaving themselves relatively fresh for tonight’s game at Pittsburgh (7:35, NBC Sports Network, WBZ-FM 98.5). They take a three-game winning streak and 8-0-2 points streak into that game, after which they 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 wild card 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 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.
Darling gave the Hurricanes life by stopping Brad Marchand on a shorthanded breakaway as Tim Schaller served a delay-of-game penalty, which the Hurricanes eventually turned into Jordan Staal’s power-play goal at 7:09.
Less than two minutes later, though, the Bruins punched their lead back up to three goals when David Pastrnak, goal-less in his previous 10 games, connected on a power play at 9:04. Within another 5:30, they 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 a milestone by the end of the period, too. After opening the scoring and feeding Pastrnak for his one-timer, Bergeron netted his second of the night at 14:34 for his third point of the game, and No. 700 for his career. He became just the seventh player in franchise history to reach that total.
He wasn’t finished, either.
Beregeron completed only the second trick of the year 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 the best night of his career: He had a five-assist night on Dec. 19, 2005, against Ottawa.