Bruins rally for fifth straight victory, Spurgeon’s hat-trick lifts Wild
>> CALGARY: Patrice Bergeron scored twice and Brad Marchand got the game-winner as the Boston Bruins rallied to beat the Calgary Flames 4-3 on Friday for their fifth consecutive victory.
Calgary jumped to a 3-1 lead through the first 3:23 minutes, but the Bruins became just the seventh team in NHL history (regular season and postseason) to win despite allowing three goals in the first four minutes of a game.
The Flames had been the most recent team to accomplish the feat, when they beat the visiting
San Jose Sharks 4-3 in a first-round play-off game on April 13, 2008.
Brad Marchand had a goal and an assist for the Bruins, who also got a goal from Charlie Coyle and two assists from David Pastrnak. Jaroslav Halak made 18 saves for the win. Mikael Backlund scored twice for the Flames, and Johnny Gaudreau added a goal.
Defenceman Jared Spurgeon scored his first career hat-trick as Minnesota won 5-3 at Edmonton.
Kevin Fiala and Carson Soucy also scored for the Wild, who improved to 2-1-0 under interim coach Dean Evason and completed a season sweep of the Oilers. Goaltender Alex Stalock made 23 saves.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored twice and Leon Draisaitl also tallied for Edmonton, who lost both games on their homestand. Goalie Mikko Koskinen stopped 34 of 38 shots.
Igor Shesterkin stopped 27 shots to win his sixth consecutive decision, and New York defeated Carolina 5-2 in Raleigh, North Carolina.
The Rangers improved to 7-0-0 in their last seven road games. Mika Zibanejad posted an unassisted goal and two assists, and Jesper Fast, Brady Skjei, Artemi Panarin and Ryan Strome also scored for the Rangers.
Brock McGinn and Sebastian Aho scored Carolina’s goals. Petr Mrazek made 31 saves.
Colton Parayko had a goal and two assists as St Louis earned their third victory in four days by defeating hosts Dallas 5-1.
Jaden Schwartz and Jordan Kyrou had a goal and assist for the Blues. The Blues also got goals from Alexander Steen and David Perron.