Historic night for Bergeron
Captain notches hat trick, 400th career goal
If it’s symmetry you want, the Bruins provided plenty in their 5-0 victory over the Buffalo Sabres at the Garden on Thursday.
The B’s did not, however, find any clarity with their playoff opponent after 81 regular-season games.
bruins 5 sabres 0
With their victory coupled with the Tampa Bay Lightning’s loss in Columbus, the B’s are now just one point behind the Bolts. The B’s finish the season on Friday in Toronto and, if the B’s win and Tampa loses at the Islanders, the B’s will play the Maple Leafs in the first round. If they can’t catch Tampa, the B’s will play the Carolina Hurricanes. How many regulars will be in the respective lineups is anyone’s guess. The B’s own the regulation win tiebreaker over Tampa.
At the Garden on Thursday, meanwhile, the B’s took care of business in perfectly fun fashion. Patrice Bergeron notched a hat trick, the last goal of which gave the captain his 400th career goal. It didn’t end there. The B’s snapped their long powerplay drought with David Pastrnak’s 40th goal of the season, then added a second PP goal on Taylor Hall’s 20th.
Linus Ullmark also notched his first shutout of the season against his former team.
And with longtime trainer Don Del Negro working his final regular-season game at the Garden before his retirement after 29 years, there were big smiles all around.
Bergeron’s 400th goal that elicited the hat shower with 2:13 left was an exquisite capper on a fun night. The centerman fell down after winning a faceoff but got up in plenty of time to receive Charlie McAvoy’s pass in the slot for his now patented snap shot to beat Dustin Tokarski.
“It was funny. I put him out there for the draw and said,
‘Listen, if it doesn’t happen here quick, let’s get off. I don’t want to wear you out and there’s two minutes left to go in the game.’ It happened quick. Good for him. I’m happy for him,” said coach Bruce Cassidy. “The guys are ecstatic for Bergy obviously and Donny Del, a great Bruin for 29 years. It’s a pretty happy room in there. Even a little Frank Sinatra playing, if you can believe that.”
The Ol’ Blue Eyes was Del Negro’s choice, “My Way” to be exact. Meanwhile, it was Bergeron who ate up the Sabres and spit them out, scoring the first two goals in the second period to set them on their way, and finished the night off with the
milestone goal.
“It was in Montreal that people told me I was three goals away from 400, so I guess I knew heading into the game,” said Bergeron, who has 25 on the season. “It is special. And the one thing that makes it special is the fact that I scored all the goals with the Bruins. That’s the biggest thing for me that I take out of it. It’s been a great ride with one organization and something that doesn’t happen very often. I’m proud of that.”
Now they have one game left in Toronto that will determine if they play the high-powered Leafs offense or the well-rounded Hurricanes in the first round. Neither will be an easy opponent.
Cassidy had planned to rest some players and he didn’t plan on changing that approach, though he still had to consult the trainers to see if there were any bumps or bruises that needed more attention. The Leafs were also expected to rest some regulars.
“I don’t know what Toronto will do know with the potential of playing us,” said Cassidy. “Some teams, you know, you’ve got to be careful what you wish for, that type of thing. Other teams would be happy to pick their poison. Whatever. I think you’re getting a tough matchup no matter what. Every team probably handles it differently. In our case, we’ve said, ‘Let’s be playing
our best hockey when we can and be healthy.’ Try to manage the work load for your players that play a lot, so we’re sticking to that plan right now.”
After a slow start, the B’s went to work in the second. The first line buzzed the Sabres’ end for several golden chances. After Tokarski made a couple of excellent saves, Bergeron finally cleaned it up for his 23rd of the season at 6:16.
The captain then popped home his second later in the period, this time off a feed from Jake DeBrusk from behind the net at 12:29. The Sabres challenged for an offside, but it was ruled onside and not only did the goal stay on the board, but the B’s got their third power play of the game off the unsuccessful challenge.
They had two golden chances to finally break the seal. First Pastrnak’s sizzling one-timer was stopped by Tokarski on a great stop and then, with Tokarski down and out, Pastrnak hit the crossbar. The cold streak stretched to 0-for-39.
But the B’s would finally — finally! — crack the iceberg on an early third-period power play. And they made it look easy. Pastrnak took a feed from Hall as he buzzed through the slot and he slipped a backhander through Tokarski’s pads.
“You know it’s going to happen at some point, right? But it’s a league where you demand the best out of yourself and you want results,” said Bergeron. “Being close is obviously not good enough after a while and you want to take it upon yourself to be better. And I thought it was great to get that goal.”
Sabres’ coach Don Granato challenged the play again for offside as Brad Marchand bobbled the puck at the blue line. But it was ruled Marchand did keep it in and that goal stood, too.
That cost the Sabres a double-minor and, five seconds into the second one, Hall dug a loose puck out of Tokarski’s pads to hit the 20-goal mark at 4:16.
After Bergeron’s 400th, the only thing that was left was to get Ullmark (37 saves) his shutout. And on this night, the B’s would not be denied.