Make it three.
After getting trounced on Opening Night, the Boston Bruins have since been rattling off wins, claiming their third straight victory Thursday night with a 4-1 triumph over the Edmonton Oilers at TD Garden.
With the second line struggling to create offense in the first three games, Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy opted to slot Joakim Nordstrom in for Ryan Donato, and the move paid off. Nordstrom was one of Boston’s goal-scorers in the win, along with David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand, and Patrice Bergeron (empty-netter).
Jaroslav Halak made 25 saves for the Bruins, while Oilers netminder Cam Talbot turned away 29 shots.
The Bruins climb to 3-1-0 with the win, while the Oilers fall to 0-2-0.
Here’s how it all went down.
BUSY FIRST
Entering Thursday, Connor McDavid had not scored a goal against the Bruins in his career, but that quickly changed. With the Oilers in transition, Ty Rattie slid a nice pass to McDavid in the neutral zone. The speedy center got around Zdeno Chara with ease and had a breakaway, finishing it off with a wrister past Halak.
Down early, the Bruins showed plenty of resolve.
The B’s went on the power play after Adam Larsson was whistled for interference, and Pastrnak showed off his skill with the puck. The winger got the puck at the top of the face-off circle, dangled until he was on the doorstep and buried his fourth goal of the campaign at 9:20.
Just over five minutes later, the Bruins capitalized on the man advantage again.
Marchand skated toward the net and threw a puck into the slot. The pass attempt ended up hitting Drake Caggiula’s skate and redirected past Talbot, putting Boston ahead.
A mere 36 seconds later, Boston extended its lead.
Nordstrom won a puck battle near the Oilers’ bench and skated into the offensive zone. He hit David Krejci with a pass, and the center waited a moment before dishing it back to Nordstrom, who put the puck home to make it 3-1.
CHIPPY SECOND
There was nothing doing on the scoresheet in the second period, but it didn’t lack in excitement, as the physicality was stepped up heavily. At 3:33, Kevan Miller and Jujhar Khaira dropped the gloves, with both getting five-minute major penalties.
Nearly four minutes later David Backes and Caggiula got into it, and though the skirmish didn’t develop into a full-fledged fight, both players got two-minute roughing penalties.
From there plenty of hard hits kept taking place, with none harder than Sean Kuraly’s thunderous smack into Matt Benning. The hit along the boards lifted a pane of glass off its setting and into the seats.
BRUINS CLOSE DOOR
Both sides created a few chances in the final period, but neither could capitalize until Bergeron put an empty-netter away with 35 seconds to play.
UP NEXT
The Bruins will take on the Detroit Red Wings in an Atlantic Division showdown Saturday. Puck drop from TD Garden is set for 3 p.m. ET.
