Bruins rebound on home ice, blank Blue Jackets, 4-0
The Bruins were given the rare gift of an immediate do-over and they made the most of it on Saturday night at the Garden.
After the Blue Jackets romped over the B’s in Columbus on Friday, the B’s walloped the Jackets, 4-0. It wasn’t the cleanest performance, but when they turned over the puck, the B’s did their best to shut down the play.
Jeremy Swayman made 18 for his second shutout of the season and Boston’s sixth straight win at Garden.
The game marked the NHL debut of Fabian Lysell and, wouldn’t you know it, the B’s took the first lead of the game on the rookie’s first shift.
While he didn’t figure in the scoring on the stat sheet, his speed was noticeable on the shift and it would be on several shifts. On the goal, Brandon Carlo put the puck on net and, though it looked like it should have been frozen easily by Columbus goalie Daniil Tarasov, the netminder couldn’t hang on to it. Mikael Pyyhtia tried to skate it out of the crease but the long reach of Justin Brazeau knocked it into the net for Brazeau’s eighth of the year at 2:29.
The game being the second of back-to-backs, there was a little left over nastiness. Six seconds after the Brazeau goal, Mark Kastelic dropped the gloves with Columbus tough guy Mathieu Olivier, who took a couple of runs at Bruins on Friday after he took exception to Charlie McAvoy’’s missed hit. Kastelic landed the best shot of the fight before Olivier was able to wrestle him to the ice.
While the B’s took the early lead, the Jackets’ young offensive skill was evident in the first period as they had several dangerous shifts in the Boston zone, one of which was aided by a misplay of the puck by Swayman.
Tensions arose again when when Kirill Marchenko caught Brad Marchand with a shoulder check to the head. Marchand was slow to get up but, once he did, he expressed his ire to Marchenko, though no blows were thrown.
The B’s had the only power play of the first period after Marchand was hauled down in the slot. But the best chance came on the delayed call when it appeared Nikita Zadorov had an open net but he couldn’t get it past the Columbus defenders.
Early in the second, the B’s survived a brutal shift from the fourth line after Kastelic coughed up the puck to Marchenko. The Jacket was given a clean breakaway but he shot it over the net. The Jackets maintained control and Swayman had to come up with a couple of big saves to preserve the lead.
And when it was Columbus’ turn to spit up the puck shortly thereafter, the B’s made the Jackets pay. Damon Severson kicked the puck into is own slot but he overshot his teammate. Morgan Geekie gathered it and sniped it under Tarasov’s glove for the 2-0 lead at 6:29 for his eighth of the season and fourth in his last eight games.
The B’s prospered off a potential disaster to make it 3-0 at 8:18. First, Geekie turned the puck over just inside the Bruin blue line. The B’s recovered but then David Pastrnak coughed it up at the blue line. But when a Jackets’ pass went off Pavel Zacha’s skate, the B’s had two forwards high and Geekie was able to send Pastrnak off on a clean breakaway. Pastrnak lifted it over Tarasov’s glove for his 13th of the season.
There was more work to be done in the period after Kastelic was called for a double minor high-sticking penalty. But after surrendering three power-play goals to Columbus on Friday, the B’s did an excellent job of killing off the full four minutes.
Pastrnak had an opportunity to score his second breakaway goal in the final seconds of the period, but he clanged the post next to Tarasov’s blocker.
Still, the B’s had a three-goal lead to work with in the third period.
Cole Koepke made it 4-0 at 6:06 of the third with his sixth of the year, a long wrist shot over the blocker from the opposite wing.
At that point, Olivier decided it was time for some payback and he took a run at McAvoy on the next shift, knocking the defenseman’s head into the glass in the neutral zone. Zadorov went after Olivier and the two threw down.
Fortunately for the B’s, McAvoy returned to the game.