A four-goal run in the second period helped the Boston Bruins come from behind for a 5-2 win over the visiting New Jersey Devils on Saturday night.
David Pastrnak had a three-point night to lead the Bruins en route to their second straight win after a four-game skid (0-2-2), scoring the tying and winning goals in the middle frame and adding an assist.
Boston’s Kevin Shattenkirk also scored twice to surpass the 100-goal mark for his career, while Jake DeBrusk posted a goal and an assist.
Linus Ullmark made 31 saves.
Nico Hischier and Luke Hughes scored for the Devils, who lost a 2-0 lead and saw their three-game win streak snapped.
Hughes has scored in three consecutive games.
Tyler Toffoli assisted on both New Jersey goals.
Vitek Vanecek logged 26 saves.
DeBrusk broke his 11-game scoring drought to cut Boston’s initial 2-0 deficit in half at 5:35 of the second, taking Marchand’s feed into the left circle before cutting to the net for a backhand finish.
The Bruins’ push continued and resulted in Pastrnak tying the score at 12:51, deflecting in Brandon Carlo’s left-side shot from the doorstep.
Pastrnak propelled the hosts to their first lead when he took DeBrusk’s feed down the slot and made a move to the backhand to score a power-play goal at 15:39.
Boston’s second-period barrage concluded at 17:14. Shattenkirk took Matt Grzelcyk’s diagonal feed to bury a wrister from the right dot that upped the lead to 4-2.
Ullmark stopped key chances against a New Jersey push in the third before Shattenkirk tucked home Marchand’s pass on the power play with 3:11 left in regulation.
New Jersey began building its early advantage 6:03 into the opening period, scoring with just six seconds gone on an early power play. Toffoli dished to an open Hischier in the bumper position, where the opening goal was buried upstairs on Ullmark.
Hughes doubled the Devils’ lead to 2-0 just 1:11 into the middle frame when he skated freely into the left circle and let a shot float high through traffic.
Despite trailing early, Boston had shots-on-goal advantages in each of the first two periods and controlled 5-on-5 play for significant stretches. New Jersey finished with a 33-31 edge in shots on goal, including 18-7 in the third.
Boston forward Georgii Merkulov played 15:08 in his NHL debut, recording two blocked shots while going just 3-8 in the faceoff circle.
–Field Level Media
