B’s finally turn on power
Pastrnak gets two in victory
OTTAWA — The power play showed up just in time to send the Bruins home pleased after their fourgame Canadian road trip, a 4-1 victory at the Canadian Tire Centre tucked in the back pocket last night.
The trip wasn’t awful. They went 1-1-2, but it could have been better. The B’s man-advantage was 0-for-10 for the first three games of the excursion and it had cost them a standings point or two, but they cashed in when the Ottawa Senators took two late second period penalties.
David Krejci (goal, assist) scored on the 5-on-3 with 50.2 seconds left in the second and then Patrice Bergeron (goal, two assist) tipped home a David Pastrnak shot on the 5-on-4 just 20 seconds into the third.
Pastrnak finished with two goals and two assists. The third amigo on the top line, Brad Marchand had one assist but, it was a doozy. And after Jaroslav Halak took the last two starts, Tuukka Rask responded with a 38-save performance.
The win checked a few boxes for coach Bruce Cassidy.
“We got some of the things we needed to happen for us. A, Tuukka gave us the saves we needed, for his own self as well. Then we win the special teams battle. And our top line, they’re not going to have too many off nights so they bounced back from Vancouver when they didn’t get on the board,” Cassidy said. “So you put those three things together, it’s a good formula for us right now till our young guys get their offensive games going.”
The two power play goals put the B’s in control of the game at 3-1, but they weren’t done. Marchand, who had dropped the gloves late in the second after a Zack Smith hit on Matt Grzelcyk he didn’t like, turned a lunging defenseman Dylan DeMelo inside out with an incredible deke in the slot before backhanding it over to Pastrnak for his second goal of the game and 10th of the year at 5:31.
“He reached, I teached and luckily it went in,” Marchand said.
The game could have had a different complexion if not for Brandon Carlo, who picked two sure-fire goals off the goal line. On the second one in the third period he knocked out of mid-air.
“Baseball kicked in from when I was 12 years old. I think. Got lucky on a couple, but just found myself in the right position,” Carlo said.
While the B’s were happy with the win, they were not the least bit pleased with Ottawa defenseman Mark Borowiecki. In the first period, Bruins rookie defenseman Urho Vaakanainen skated toward the crease during a scrum and he caught what looked like a forearm shiver to the face. The rookie stayed in the game in the first period, but did not return for the second and it was announced he had suffered a concussion. Vaakanainen was sporting a nice welt on his right cheekbone after the game.
“They’ll look at it. It’s a flying elbow,” Cassidy said. “Listen, for me, I’m not in the heat of the battle. It looked fairly deliberate. He saw the player coming. But that’s not for me to decide. It’s unfortunate for Urho because he’s concussed. At the end of the day, that’ll move up the food change and someone will have to make a decision whether that’s suspendable or not.”
The B’s will have to promote another D-man from Providence for tomorrow’s game at home against Philadelphia, perhaps veteran Cody Goloubef, or maybe Jakub Zboril or Jeremy Lau- zon will get their first NHL game. We shall see.
The B’s played a strong first period and got on the board at 11:17 when Danton Heinen stole an Ottawa clear attempt at the blue line and, on a line change, hit Pastrnak coming down the slot. The Czech star ripped a wrister past Craig Anderson.
The scales tipped in Ottawa’s favor in the second and Thomas Chabot tied it with a power play goal at 17:51.
But first Alex Formenton took a holding penaty at 18:27 and then the Sens were whistled for too many men 38 seconds later. The B’s made them pay on both of the infractions and then leaned on Rask the rest of the way.