After failing to grab a win against the Washington Capitals and New York Rangers to open their three-game homestand, the Boston Bruins made a statement against one of the NHL’s top teams Monday.
The Bruins handled the Columbus Blue Jackets from the opening puck drop at TD Garden, scoring two power plays goals and stifling the Blue Jackets with impressive defense in a 7-1 win.
Boston outshot Columbus 45-18 and Tuukka Rask bounced back from Saturday’s loss to the Rangers, stopping 16 of the 18 shots the Blue Jackets sent his way.
With the win, the Bruins improved to 16-10-5, while the Blue Jackets fell to 20-13-1.
Here’s how it all went down:
MAN DOWN
David Krejci was a late scratch before Monday’s game with what was described as an upper body injury. Ryan Spooner shifted over to center on the second line with Anders Bjork sliding back into the lineup after being a healthy scratch last game. Krejci is described as day-to-day but he will not travel to Buffalo on Tuesday, head coach Bruce Cassidy announced before the game. The center missed 11 games earlier this season with a back injury.
TWO-MAN GAME
The Bruins controlled most of the first period against the Blue Jackets but were unable to put one past Sergei Bobrovsky early on.
That all changed with under six minutes to go in the opening frame. Boston got a clean break out that had Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand playing a slick two-man game in the offensive zone. Marchand slipped a pass to Bergeron near the net and raced toward the goal. Bergeron received the pass and immediately dropped it off to his teammate who buried it past Bobrovsky with 5:12 left in the period.
The goal extended Marchand’s point streak to nine games.
ADVANTAGE BRUINS
After struggling on the power play in Saturday’s loss to the Rangers, the B’s started to regain their form with the man advantage Monday when Boone Jenner was sent to the box for tripping Bjork at the 6:47 mark of the period.
The power play got off to a shaky start for Boston, but Jake DeBrusk salvaged what was a mess of a sequence by dangling through two defenders and feeding David Backes in the circle for his third goal of the season.
The B’s got another power-play goal at the 11:53 mark in the period when DeBrusk fired a cross-crease pass to Charlie McAvoy that the rookie hammered home.
Boston outshot Columbus 28-14 through two periods.
FIRST FIGHT
Things got a little testy early in the third period, as McAvoy hammered Pierre-Luc Dubois and the winger decided to throw down against the B’s rookie.
It was McAvoy’s first career NHL fight.
Columbus and Boston traded goals midway through the third period, as Josh Anderson got the Blue Jackets on the board before Danton Heinen answered.
Torey Krug, Bergeron and DeBrusk scored in garbage time to cement the 7-2 win.
UP NEXT
The Bruins will face the Buffalo Sabres on the second night of a back-to-back Tuesday. Puck drop from KeyBank Center is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET.
