Pavel Zacha scored a tiebreaking goal in the final minute of the second period, and the Boston Bruins held on to beat the host Edmonton Oilers 3-2 on Monday night.
Jeremy Swayman made 22 saves to improve to 10-1-3 in his past 14 decisions for the Bruins, who have started 3-0-0 on a four-game Western Conference road trip, extending their winning streak to seven games.
Tomas Nosek and Nick Foligno rounded out the Boston offense with first-period goals. Dmitry Orlov had two assists while David Pastrnak added one assist to reach the 80-point plateau for the fourth time in his NHL career.
Edmonton’s Connor McDavid scored twice for the first 50-goal season of his NHL career. It was his 61st game of the season, making him the fastest player to reach the 50-goal milestone since Mario Lemieux (50 games), Jaromir Jagr (59 games) and Alexander Mogilny (60 games) in 1995-96.
Leon Draisaitl assisted on McDavid’s opening goal just 2:17 into the first period, extending his point streak to seven games.
McDavid is on a four-game goal-scoring streak, having netted two in each of those contests.
Boston had a 28-24 shots advantage despite going 0-for-5 on the power play. Stuart Skinner made 25 saves as Edmonton lost its second straight game.
Edmonton’s star duo teamed up for the opening goal. Draisaitl sent a stretch pass down the boards to McDavid, whose wrister beat Swayman low from the left circle.
Nosek scored his first goal since Dec. 17 as Boston evened the score a mere 13 seconds later.
Garnet Hathaway and Orlov, who were acquired by Boston from the Washington Capitals last week, recorded their first points with the Bruins. The former touched a feed to the front of the net for Nosek’s chip-in.
Boston took its first lead with 4:54 left in the opening stanza. After a McDavid turnover, Foligno started up on a quick two-on-one rush, got a pass back from Charlie Coyle and slipped a short-side shot past Skinner.
Edmonton knotted the score again 12:20 into the second period. Out of the box, Klim Kostin evaded Boston defender Charlie McAvoy’s check behind the net and slipped a puck to McDavid, who danced in the slot to make it 2-2.
Boston grabbed the lead back on Zacha’s great effort goal with 29.9 seconds left in the middle frame. Following a Pastrnak shot into traffic, his Czech linemate dove for a loose puck outside the left crease and deflected it over Skinner.
The hosts pushed for much of the final frame, but it was to no avail. Kostin took a double minor for catching Bruins captain Patrice Bergeron with a high stick with 4:30 left.
Boston’s advantage became a five-on-three for 1:56 after a slash by Vincent Desharnais, who blocked multiple Pastrnak shots during the preceding sequence.
–Field Level Media
