B’s make it two straight over Isles
Pastrnak & Hall score while Swayman posts first shutout
In a matter of two nights at the Garden, the Bruins discovered a few encouraging things about themselves.
They not only have enough skill to battle with the best of the East Division, they can outwork the best of them, too.
And, oh, they have one hell of a goaltending prospect whose time may be sooner than we all thought.
After a dominant 4-1 victory over the New York Islanders on Thursday, the B’s gritted their teeth through a 3-0 victory on Friday. The B’s got goals from two of their resident stars, David Pastrnak and Taylor Hall, and then new fourth-liner Curtis Lazar finished off the Isles with an empty-netter, clinching the victory.
Meanwhile, Jeremy Swayman pitched his first NHL shutout, making 25 saves, several of them on Grade-A chances.
As expected, the Islanders came at the Bruins with a much better effort than they did on Thursday night, requiring Swayman to be on his game. And he was.
Swayman stopped an early clean break by Michael Dal Colle and later made a lunging body save on Antony Beauvillier on an Islanders power play. Swayman stopped all 10 Islanders shots in the period.
But just when it looked like the B’s might be content to go into the first intermission deadlocked at 0-0, they struck.
With the seconds ticking off the clock, Mike Reilly and Patrice Bergeron pulled off a nice give-andgo at the left point. Reilly deftly redirected a low-tohigh pass to Bergeron and then skated ahead. He took the return feed from Bergeron and, from the left corner, threaded the needle through the slot for Pastrnak, who buried his shot over Ilya Sorokin’s shoulder with just 2.4 seconds left on the clock.
The goal snapped a seven-game goal-less streak for Pastrnak.
After that last-minute goal to end the first, the B’s jabbed the Islanders with a first-minute goal to kick off the second period. Hall and David Krejci pulled off a long-distance give-and-go along the offensive blue line, with Hall dishing to Krejci on the right wing. Hall headed to the net and Krejci delivered a perfect pass for Hall to redirect home from the slot just 47 seconds into the period.
Hall’s second goal in as many games made it 2-0, and, despite chances at both ends, that’s the way it stayed for the rest of the period.
The Islanders would carry over 1:07 of powerplay time into the third period after Sean Kuraly lifted a clear-out into the seats.