Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Marchand, Bruins thump Flyers
Brad Marchand was fortunate that the puck found its way into the net without him getting off a shot.
The way he’s feeling now, it doesn’t seem to matter.
Marchand had two goals — one short-handed, the other an emptynetter — and had three assists to lift the Boston Bruins to a 6-3 win over the slumping Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday.
Playing in his 500th game, Marchand stole the puck from Sean Couturier near the blue line in the defensive zone and skated in while being hooked by defenseman Ivan Provorov. The puck slid off Marchand’s stick for a shorthanded goal, tying the game 1-1 at 7:48 of the first period.
“I think that’s just how hockey goes sometimes — pucks bounce your way and other times they don’t,” he said.
When asked if it’s nice when you score without even getting a shot, he said: “Yeah, things are going well, but I would have got it on the penalty shot.”
He added an empty-netter with
54 seconds to play, giving him seven goals and five assists in six games. He has 17 goals this season.
“Well, I think right now he’s ‘feeling,”’ Bruins coach Claude Julien said. “That’s the word I use when I talk about Brad.”
The win improved Boston’s record to .500 at home (10-10) in its first game of a stretch of five of seven at TD Garden heading into the All-Star break at the end of the month.
Tuukka Rask was back in goal for Boston after leaving the previous game — a loss at Nashville on Thursday — because he was hit in the throat area by a shot in the opening period. He made 21 saves. He said he felt fine. The Flyers lost for the eighth time in 10 games (2-6-2).
“I think puck management is the key for us right now — turnovers at their blue line, our blue line is really shrinking the ice in half and making it tough to play,” Philadelphia defenseman Michael Del Zotto said.
Zdeno Chara, Patrice
Bergeron, Torey Krug and David Krejci also scored for the Bruins. Krejci’s was his 500th point.
Boston defenseman Kevan Miller was helped off the ice with what the team called an upper-body injury after he crashed into the backboards hard following a check by Jakub Voracek, who was given a major for boarding.
Wayne Simmonds, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Brayden Schenn had Philadelphia’s goals. Michal Neuvirth stopped 33 shots.
“They like screening and tipping,” Neuvirth said. “I don’t know how many goals were scored by tipping. It was a tough one.”
Krejci fired a wrist shot into the top far corner of the net from the left wing to move Boston ahead for good two minutes into the second. Austin Czarnik jumped to keep the puck in at the point before sending a cross-ice pass to Krejci for his powerplay score.
Krug scored four minutes later when he redirected Marchand’s crossice pass from the edge of the slot.
The Flyers cut it to 3-2 on Schenn’s goal five seconds into a power play before Marchand set up Bergeron for a power-play goal at 13:04.
Chara one-timed David Pastrnak’s pass to make it 5-2. Marchand made a drop pass to Pastrnak, setting up the play.
Simmonds’ goal came with 3.2 seconds left in the second. The Flyers were skating with a two-man advantage.
NOTES: Flyers D Mark Streit was activated off long-term injury before the game and F Boyd Gordon was waived. Streit was rehabbing a sprained left shoulder and missed 13 games. ... It was the second of three games between the teams this season. Philadelphia won the first, 3-2 in a shootout at home on Nov. 29.