David Pastrnak recorded a hat trick and season-high five points as the Boston Bruins ended their 10-game losing streak with an emphatic 5-1 win over the visiting Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday night.
Pastrnak finished off the trick when he took Morgan Geekie’s cross-ice pass and slithered to the front of the net with 4:42 left in regulation. The star winger had points in each period, reaching the 40-goal and 90-point plateaus on the night.
Pastrnak, Geekie (one goal, three assists) and linemate Elias Lindholm (one goal, one assist) combined for 11 of Boston’s 13 points.
Jeremy Swayman made 14 of his 39 stops in the middle frame to help the Bruins (31-37-9, 71 points) to their first win since March 11.
Carolina (46-26-4, 96 points) broke Swayman’s shutout bid when Justin Robidas scored his first NHL goal with 54.2 seconds left in the third.
Frederik Andersen stopped 21 shots for the Hurricanes, who have lost back-to-back games following a three-game win streak.
After both teams came up empty on the power play in the first period, the Bruins netted two goals on three shots in a late 58-second span and carried a 2-0 lead into the intermission. Geekie tallied first at 18:49, firing a shot from above the left circle that snuck in five-hole.
Lindholm doubled the Boston lead with 12.8 seconds left, punching home a Pastrnak feed that was initially saved as the puck bounced off his skate outside the goal crease.
After setting up the first two goals, Pastrnak scored his first when he skated the puck out of the slot to create space and slipped home a no-angle shot from along the goal line at 10:14 of the second.
Just 1:28 into the third, Boston’s top-line wingers made another connection to up the lead to 4-0. Pastrnak scored his second straight goal, batting a Geekie feed out of the air and past Andersen after he drove down the right wing and cut to the opposite post.
While the Bruins’ offense built the three-goal cushion, Swayman made several strong saves to keep the Hurricanes off the scoreboard. His blocker stop on Tyson Jost with 4:24 left in the first helped set up the Bruins’ opportunity to take the lead.
The Boston goaltender continued to stay sharp, flashing the glove for a save on Taylor Hall with 5:30 to go in the second before stopping a partial break-in from Eric Robinson halfway through the third.
–Field Level Media
