BOSTON — David Pastrnak rang up his fourth hat trick of the season, and Tuukka Rask made 28 saves to remain unbeaten in regulation at home, pushing the Bruins to a 4-1 victory over the Canadiens on Wednesday night at TD Garden.
Pastrnak climbed back into the NHL lead with 41 goals as the Bruins' sixth straight victory at the Garden assured them of staying atop the NHL standings into the weekend. The Lightning, second to the B's in the league and Atlantic Division, [...]
BOSTON — David Pastrnak rang up his fourth hat trick of the season, and Tuukka Rask made 28 saves to remain unbeaten in regulation at home, pushing the Bruins to a 4-1 victory over the Canadiens on Wednesday night at TD Garden.
Pastrnak climbed back into the NHL lead with 41 goals as the Bruins' sixth straight victory at the Garden assured them of staying atop the NHL standings into the weekend. The Lightning, second to the B's in the league and Atlantic Division, are three points behind the Bruins entering Thursday night's game against the Oilers.
The Bruins host the Red Wings, who have beaten them five straight times (2-0-0 this season, both games in Detroit), on Saturday in their final game at the Garden before a four-game road trip begins against the Rangers on Sunday.
Brad Marchand, who finished with three assists, was at the center of the most memorable first-period moments.
A relatively cool 3-3--6 in hs previous nine games, Marchand turned a defensive play and a spectacular rush into the game's first goal after 6:59. Marchand stole Jonathan Drouin's short pass at the red line and raced into Canadiens territory against Jeff Petry, catching the defenseman a bit flat-footed. Marchand put the put through Petry's skates and picked it up on the other side as Brett Kulak approached from Marchand's right, but Marchand slipped a pass through the pressure to David Pastrnak, who fired his career-high 39th goal of the season into an almost unguarded net.
Marchand was in the dressing room before the period ended, after he was assessed penalties for slashing and roughing with 1:18 remaining. After being driven hard into the boards by Petry behind the Canadiens net, Marchand and Petry engaged in a series of stick jabs all the way to the neutral zone, until Marchand threw a couple of punches before the two fell to the ice. Petry was assessed a single roughing penalty.
The Bruins finished killing the shorthanded situation at the start of the second period, and added to their lead a few minutes later. Pastrnak became the Bruins' first 40-goal scorer since Glen Murray in 2002-03 at 4:16, again off an outstanding pass. This one came from center Sean Kuraly, who took the puck from Petry a few feet inside the Bruins' blue line and lugged it up the ice on a 2-on-1 rush. Kuraly got his pass through Xavier Oullet to Pastrnak, who held ithe puck until Carey Price went down and lifted in over him to make it 2-0.
The crowd didn't have much time to celebrate. The Habs answered only 26 seconds later, when Marco Scandella's shot from the middle of the point hit the leg of Nick Suzuki and deflected past Rask at 4:52.
More bad blood began to flow. Bruins captain Zdeno Chara and Canadiens winger Brendan Gallagher both took roughing penalties for battling while awaiting a faceoff, and when matching roughing penalties to Drouin and Chris Wagner were followed by a minor against Joel Armia, the Bruins had a 4-on-3 power play.
Pastrnak used that to complete his fourth hat trick of the season with 4:15 left in the second period. Petry was victimized again, this time putting a clearing attempt right on Pastrnak's stick after Price saved Marchand's one-timer; Pastrnak slid his shot beneath Price and just inside the far post.
Patrice Bergeron's empty-net goal closed the scoring with 20 seconds remaining.