Matt Grzelcyk scored three goals over 66 regular-season games in the 2018-19 campaign.
The 25-year-old defenseman nearly matched that mark in just over 18 minutes of ice time Sunday afternoon at TD Garden.
Grzelyck accounted for two of the Boston Bruins’ six goals in their Game 2 thrashing of the Carolina Hurricanes. The Charlestown, Mass., native got the Bruins on the board late in the first period and swelled the home team’s lead to 4-0 with just over two minutes left in the second.
It’s not often the B’s receive multi-goal performances from defensemen in playoff tilts. In fact, only a handful of Boston blue liners have done it in the past 35 years.
Matt Grzelcyk, a native of Charlestown, Mass., became the fifth @NHLBruins defenseman to score multiple goals in a playoff game in the last 35 years. #NHLStats #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/3c5Z0bUEOj
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) May 12, 2019
Never hurts to be included in the same breath as Ray Bourque and Zdeno Chara.
Grzelyck wasn’t the only Bruins D-man to light the lamp Sunday afternoon. Rookie Connor Clifton logged his first career playoff goal to give Boston a 3-0 lead over Carolina.