Bergeron leads B’s in rout
Captain scores four goals in win over Wings
You can take a breath, Bruins fans. It appears both your captain — and your power play — are going to be OK.
Just as folks started to wonder aloud whether his 36-year-old body was finally slowing down after all the hard miles, Patrice Bergeron scored his first, second, third and fourth goals of the year — three on the man-advantage — to lift the B’s to their most complete victory of the season, a 5-1 drubbing of the Detroit Red Wings at the Garden on Thursday.
When the night started, Bergeron had a zero in his column. By the end of the evening, he was tied for the team lead in goals.
The B’s took a 1- 0 lead in the first period in which the damage could have been a lot worse, given the 12-3 shot advantage.
One of the things the B’s coaching staff focused on during the four days in between games was the lagging power play. And when they got their first man advantage, the B’s showed the importance of practice.
With Vladislav Namestnikov in the box for staying in the play after his helmet was knocked off, the B’s needed all of five seconds to cash in. Bergeron won the right dot faceoff cleanly back to Charlie McAvoy, who in turn pushed it back down to Brad Marchand on the right wing. Marchand found Bergeron in his bumper position and the captain snapped his patented one-time half slapper past goalie Thomas Greiss at 11:03.
From there, the B’s dominated the rest of the period, earning another power play, but could not extend the lead. On the second PP, it looked like Bergeron might have a second goal but his tip hit Taylor Hall at the top of the crease.
The Red Wings started to show a little bit of life in the second period and had the B’s penned in their own zone, forcing a couple of icings. Then, midway through the period, Tyler Bertuzzi made a terrific poke-check of McAvoy just outside the blue line to give Lucas Raymond a clean break-in. Jeremy Swayman made the stop on Raymond, but as it turned out, it wouldn’t have counted anyway because Bertuzzi took a very illadvised penalty behind the play.
The B’s then cashed in on the PP. While this advantage wasn’t nearly as crisp as the first two, Marchand eventually tracked down a loose puck behind the Wings net and fed Bergeron out at the right circle. Once again, Bergeron picked his spot on the far blocker side and beat Greiss for the 2- 0 lead at 10:52.
But the B’s did need their goalie in the period. Swayman preserved the two-goal lead with a beautiful save on Raymond on a backdoor play that looked like a sure goal.
And the Wings tempted fate one more time before the period was out when Moritz Seider took a holding penalty on Karson Kuhlman when the fourth-liner took the puck hard to the net.
Bergeron completed the hat trick off a pass again from Marchand, burying it again from his office between the dots.
It wasn’t a perfect night for the captain. In the third period with David Pastrnak (still struggling,
with an earlier missed open net) already in the box for high-sticking, Bergeron took a tripping penalty, giving the Wings a lengthy 5on-3. They capitalized with a Raymond backdoor goal.
But the captain’s mates would
not let their captain feel too much shame. With Bergeron still in the box, the B’s regained their threegoal advantage with a shorthanded goal. Curtis Lazar was stopped on a partial breakaway but Mike Reilly scored the shorty on the re
bound. It was Reilly’s first as a Bruin and first goal since Jan. 28, 2020.
Bergeron added his fourth of the year off the rush to finish it off and, for a night anyway, all was right in the B’s world.