BOSTON — Bruins center Patrice Bergeron was given the task of shutting down New York Islanders captain and Hart Trophy candidate John Tavares in Saturday night’s game at TD Garden.
Bergeron did his job well, winning nine of 13 faceoffs against Tavares and helping the Bruins control 51.61 percent of even-strength shot attempts when two centers were on the ice at the same time. Bergeron played 12:12 of 5-on-5 ice time against Tavares, his highest versus any Islanders forward Saturday night.
Tavares did open the scoring with a power-play goal, but Bergeron was not on the ice because he played a lengthy shift just prior to the Islanders’ power play. A little more than four minutes later, Bergeron tied the score with a power-play tally to give him 14 goals on the season, one behind Brad Marchand for the Bruins lead. Thirteen of Patrice Bergeron’s 14 goals have either given the Bruins the lead or tied the score.
Bergeron finished with one goal, a team-high six shots and one blocked shot, and he won 60 percent of his faceoffs in Boston’s 2-1 win.
— B’s winger Loui Eriksson broke a 1-1 tie with a goal at the 12:26 mark of the third period. Eriksson was able to locate the puck and score while his back was turned to the net.
“He’s always been a good net-front player when it comes to that stuff,” B’s head coach Claude Julien said. “People probably don’t realize how good he is because his physicality isn’t one of (Milan Lucic), but it’s certainly a guy that’s smart enough to get to the right place at the right time, and he finds the puck. Great job for him getting in front of the net to start with, but also spinning and finding the puck and banging it in.”
— Bruins defenseman Matt Bartkowski was a healthy scratch for the 14th straight game and hasn’t played since the calendar turned to 2015.
— With the Bruins protecting a 2-1 lead and the Islanders pressuring Boston in its own zone during the final minute of the third period, B’s forward Chris Kelly put his body on the line and blocked a Johnny Boychuk slap shot from the point. It was one of the little plays that make a huge difference.
“He’s so reliable, and he’ll do that any time, and even under pressure he’ll make the smart plays,” Julien said of Kelly. “He doesn’t really panic, and he’s a reliable guy. He’s one of the guys I like to see out there whenever I can at the end of a game, and his willingness to block shots no matter who is shooting it is the most important thing.”
— Bruins rookie right winger David Pastrnak started the game with Chris Kelly and Carl Soderberg on the third line. This trio dominated puck possession, but Pastrnak was moved up to the top line with David Krejci and Milan Lucic toward the end of the second period. Reilly Smith was struggling and B’s head coach Claude Julien decided to make the switch in an attempt to spark his team’s offense.
“I thought (Smith) was struggling on that line, right now you could see that his confidence wasn’t very good tonight, everything he touched kind of exploded on him,” Julien said. “I thought I’d give Pastrnak the opportunity to move up and give that team a little bit more speed, and I think he did. I thought he was playing well, and he seemed to gain confidence from that.”
— Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask was named the No. 1 star of the game with 39 saves on 40 shots.
“He’s in a zone, he’s just been really good for us, focused and even intense,” Julien said. “He’s not afraid to yell at the players around him if they aren’t doing their jobs, and you know he’s just been a determined athlete in this last little while, and it’s made a big difference for our hockey team.”
Thumbnail photo via Greg M. Cooper/USA TODAY Sports Images. GIF via Twitter/@PeteBlackburn
