The Boston Bruins have a lot to be encouraged about.
They closed out their three-game road trip on a strong note Saturday, defeating the Calgary Flames 4-2 on to take two of three north of the border before returning to Boston.
With the win, the B's improve to 14-8-2. Calgary falls to 15-7-6.
Here's the full box score:
ONE BIG TAKEAWAY
Hockey is hilarious sometimes.
Poor Calgary, having outshot Boston by a significant ratio throughout much of the game, finishing with 42 shots compared to the Bruins' 27.
But the Bruins have been on the other side of games like this all season. After Connor Clifton opened up the scoring in the first, Boston's second period showcased some of its best hockey all season. Marchand perfectly tipped a pass in from David Pastrnak just after five minutes in, and Charlie McAvoy sniped in a great second effort shot thanks to a rebound and feed from Patrice Bergeron.
Curtis Lazar offered another fourth-line goal for good measure, and the Bruins head back to Boston on a high note.
STARS OF THE GAME
-- The B's couldn't have done it without Linus Ullmark. The goalie was quite busy back there for Boston and made 40 big stops.
-- Bergeron recorded two assists in the game, and with that, Boston's captain reached his 555th assist for the Bruins, moving up past Phil Esposito to No. 4 in the franchises' all-time assist record book.
-- It was a two-point game for Trent Frederic,, who centered the fourth line and assisted on Clifton's and Lazar's goals. They ended up being crucial.
WAGER WATCH
There was a lot of money to be made if you believed in Boston. The visitors entered the game as underdogs with moneyline odds set at +110.
Here's what lines for anytime scorers looked like before puck dropped for some of the players who found the back of the net:
Brad Marchand +200
Curtis Lazar +600
Charlie McAvoy +600
Conor Clifton +1300 (he was +6500 to score the first goal of the game)
NEXT UP ON NESN
Boston comes back to the East Coast and gets two days off before its next game. The Bruins take the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET. NESN will have a full hour of postgame and pregame coverage leading up to the game and after it to break things down.
