Patrice Bergeron scored three goals while Brad Marchand tallied four points, and it helped the Boston Bruins to a 4-2 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday at Wells Fargo Center.
Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman, perhaps most notably, stopped 40 of 42 shots in his NHL debut. It was his first career win.
Bergeron scored his first two goals in the opening period before adding an empty-netter with 23 seconds left in the contest. Marchand gave the Bruins a 3-2 lead earlier in the final period on a short-handed goal.
Boston came out strong in the first, taking a 2-0 lead, and picked up their intensity again in the third while scoring two additional goals.
Flyers goaltender Carter Hart compiled 22 saves on 25 shots.
Boston improves to 20-10-6 on the season while Philadelphia fell to 18-15-5.
Here’s how it all went down:
BERGERON LEADS HOT START
Bergeron helped the Bruins take a 2-0 lead after the first intermission.
Bergeron scored the first goal of the game — and 900th point of his career — at 7:09 of the first period.
The Bruins’ pivot was on the finishing end of a goal after a Marchand initial shot, which was deflected in front of the net by Craig Smith. Bergeron collected the rebound, sent it to his forehand and slid in a shot past Hart.
The Captain extended that lead to 2-0 at 17:31 of the period on a beautiful sequence which started on the other end of the ice with Swayman.
Swayman stopped a breakaway bid from Philadelphia’s Scott Laughton, which started the Bruins transition before Marchand and Pastrnak earned the assist on Bergeron’s power-play tally.
The Flyers held a 13-11 advantage in shots while each team had one power-play opportunity. Boston came away with a penalty kill after Matt Grzelcyk went to the box at 10:15 for hooking.
PHILLY STRIKES BACK
The Flyers came out with a heightened intensity the Bruins didn’t match, and it led to Philadelphia tying the game 2-2 heading into the second intermission.
Jakub Voracek cut Boston’s lead to 2-1 at 1:33 of the frame on a goal set up by Travis Konecny.
The Flyers then found the tying tally from Shayne Gostisbehere at 4:03 of the period. That was assisted by Voracek and Ivan Prororov.
Ritchie sent a left-to-right pass to Pastrnak, who unleashed a point-blank chance at Hart, at 10:08. The shot was stopped, though, proving one of the Bruins’ best chances of the period.
Philadelphia went to the power play at 11:14 after Trent Frederic was called for roughing, but Boston came away with its second penalty kill of the contest.
Philadelphia had a 25-7 edge in shots in the second alone — 38 to 18 through the first two periods. Two of those 25 second-period shots sounded off the crossbar and post, respectively.
REGAINING THEIR SPARK
Boston turned up its intensity in all three zones during the period, and it led to the B’s taking back their lead.
Marchand recorded his third point of the night on Boston’s fifth short-handed goal of the campaign. The winger gave the Bruins a 3-2 lead at 8:21 of the final period after Jeremy Lauzon found Marchand on a 2-on-1 rush. Marchand slid the puck between Hart’s pads as Connor Clifton was assessed the assist, as well.
Kevan Miller was sent to the box twice in the third period, the first of which was on Marchand’s goal (tripping) while the second came at 9:59 when he was assed a cross checking penalty. The Bruins and Flyers played the next two minutes of four-on-four, but neither was able to find the back of the net.
Boston went to the power play at 13:12 after Philadelphia’s Samuel Morin was sent to the box for roughing.
Bergeron scored the empty-netter at 19:37 of the final period to provide some insurance.
UP NEXT
The Bruins will travel to face the Capitals on Thursday at 7 p.m. ET.
