Despite coming face-to-face with a near collapse in the final period, the Boston Bruins weathered the storm against the New Jersey Devils on Friday night. Boston’s 4-3 victory at Prudential Center transpired in a nearly unrecognizable victory from where it stood to begin the third period.
The Bruins saved all their scoring for the second period against the Devils. In response to a New Jersey score in the first period, Boston answered in what appeared to be runaway fashion. David Pastrnak (2), Patrice Bergeron and Jake DeBrusk combined to tally four straight goals to open up a three-goal lead concluding the second period. However, the Devils wouldn’t skate off without a fight, leading to a nail-biting final minutes of play.
DeBrusk netted the final of four, which proved to be the game-decider. He also finished with an assist, which came when Bergeron supplied the equalizer to get the rally started.
“Yeah, we needed that,” DeBrusk said, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “… Everyone’s playing for each other. It’s something that sounds cliché but if you look throughout our roster, what guys have for statistics, everyone’s doing very well. And there’s probably a couple of guys that are — I think I said this even earlier — going for career highs. Anytime that you have that type of production throughout the lineup — it’s a hard league to have that in — and when you have that, it makes us a really hard team to beat.”
Despite getting off to a slow start, head coach Jim Montgomery was pleased with what he saw from the Bruins.
“We actually liked our first period,” Montgomery said, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “I know that the shot clock didn’t favor us and Linus (Ullmark) had to be good all night, but they’re a very dangerous team and we knew that.”
New Jersey certainly proved to be dangerous as they netted back-to-back scores in under three minutes to slash through Boston’s lead. Despite those crucial late-game hiccups which allowed the Devils to flip the game from a blowout to a competitive contest, Montgomery was “astonished” by Boston’s mental focus.
“It’s been incredible,” Montgomery said. “I’ve been astonished. … It shows a lot of guys in that locker room have done a lot of winning for a long time. And it shows in their maturity and how they handle momentum swings — good or bad.”
Here are more notes from Friday’s Bruins-Devils game:
— Pastrnak extended his point streak to 11 straight games. Through the stretch, he’s scored 10 goals with five assists, dating back to Dec. 3 against the Colorado Avalanche. The Bruins have also won eight games within the streak.
— Ullmark saved 37-of-40 shots to notch his fourth straight road victory. In his last three games, Ullmark has recorded a plus-90% save percentage against opponents.
“Linus stood tall for us as he always does,” Bergeron said, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “I think he gave us some momentum out of that. You wanna kind of respond after big saves like that and I thought we did.”
— The Bruins have extended their win streak to four games. Through the streak, Boston has outscored opponents, 18-10.
“Credit to all the guys in that locker room,” Bergeron said. “I think everyone is contributing and playing to the best of their ability and I think there’s still a lot of growth. So we can’t be satisfied. … With that being said, back to work on the 27th.”
— Against the Metropolitan division, the Bruins improved to a perfect 9-0-0. They’ve scored 4.22 goals per game and allowed 2.22 when facing said teams this season.
— The Bruins remain on the road for their next two games. Boston will return to the ice on Tuesday and face off against the Ottawa Senators. Puck drop from Canadian Tire Centre is set for 7 p.m. ET, and you can watch the game, plus an hour of pregame coverage, live on NESN.
