If you like lots of goals, you were in for quite the treat Thursday night at Rogers Place.
The Boston Bruins and Edmonton combined for 11 goals in the Oilers’ 7-4 victory on what was a wild night north of the border.
With the win, Edmonton improved to 37-24-9, while Boston dropped to 38-27-6.
Here’s how it all went down.
OILERS STRIKE FIRST … AND SECOND … AND THIRD
For some reason, Patrick Maroon immediately goes into goal-scorer mode when he sees those Bruins jerseys.
Maroon, who had a hat trick during the Oilers’ Jan. 5 trip to Boston, added two more goals in the first period Thursday. The first one came on the power play just 4:29 into the game after the Bruins failed to cover the backdoor play.
Maroon then put the Oilers up 2-0 on a goal 5:28 into the frame.
And Benoit Pouliot got in on the fun with a tip-in goal from his knees 8:23 into the game.
DON’T COUNT OUT BRUINS
But the Bruins wouldn’t go away easily. In fact, they made it a game with two straight goals to make it 3-2 at the time.
David Pastrnak delivered the first goal with some help from his teammates. Torey Krug set up the play from the point, and he subsequently passed the puck to Ryan Spooner at the faceoff dot. Spooner then gently passed it to Brad Marchand, who was near the goal line. All of that opened up space for Pastrnak to score after Marchand found him cross ice.
Pastrnak’s tally extended his point streak to 11 games.
Marchand earned another point on the Bruins’ second score, although this time he was the goal scorer. Similar to Pastrnak, Marchand took advantage of a wide-open net and scored his 37th goal of the season
The Oilers did score again thanks to Anton Slepyshev, though, as they took a 4-2 lead into the first intermission.
QUICK HOOK
Thursday’s game was one to forget for Tuukka Rask. The B’s goalie, who had the night off Wednesday in the Bruins’ 5-2 win over the Calgary Flames, was pulled after he allowed his fifth goal of the game just 2:06 into the second period. Drake Caggiula scored the goal, and it came on the power play.
Rask stopped 13 of the 18 shots he faced. Anton Khudobin made 17 saves in relief of the struggling Boston netminder.
GOALS EVERYWHERE
The goals didn’t stop there. Not by a long shot.
The Bruins made it a two-score game when Dominic Moore netted a pretty backhanded goal with Boston down a man 4:17 into the frame.
But Khudobin continued the Bruins’ rough night in net when he allowed a Leon Draisaitl unassisted goal, which made it 6-3 Oilers.
Both teams scored again in the final six minutes of the second period, as Milan Lucic and David Krejci connected on power-play goals to make it 7-4 at the intermission.
Neither team scored a goal in the third period. A scary moment did happen near the end, though, when a Patrice Bergeron shot went right off Matt Beleskey’s head. Beleskey eventually skated to the locker room with some help from Bergeron and the training staff.
UP NEXT
Boston will look to get back in the win column when it closes its four-game Canadian road trip Monday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Puck drop is set for 7:30 p.m. ET.
Thumbnail photo via Walter Tychnowicz/USA TODAY Sports Images
