With his elite goal-scoring ability, Boston Bruins star David Pastrnak has an array of moves to finish off a breakaway bid.
But with history on the line, as he barreled in on Carolina Hurricanes goalie Frederik Andersen less than five minutes into the first period in Sunday’s 4-3 shootout win, Pastrnak never dipped into his bag of tricks. That’s because Pastrnak lost control of the puck.
Still, Andersen wasn’t expecting it and the puck still slid past him to put Pastrnak in an exclusive group as he became the sixth player in franchise history to tally 50 goals in a season.
“I don’t know how to do that on purpose,” Pastrnak told reporters with a laugh as seen on NESN postgame coverage.
Despite the optics of the milestone goal, it was a meaningful achievement for Pastrnak, who in the second period added a power-play goal and now is up to 601 points in his career after the two tallies.
Pastrnak was on the precipice of breaking into the rare club during the 2019-2020 season until the COVID-19 pandemic changed the complexion of the season. That helped put things into perspective for the talented ninth-year winger and made reaching the 50-goal mark even more significant accomplishment.
“It’s very special,” Pastrnak told reporters. “It’s better with the win. I came close a couple years ago. (But) you never know what can happen. I had plenty games to get there. And all of a sudden COVID happens. It’s definitely special. It’s been a long way. Obviously, a big thanks to all my teammates and my family. It’s pretty cool and even better to share it with the guys that I have here.”
Here are more notes from Sunday’s Bruins-Hurricanes game:
— In a season in which the Bruins have rewritten the history books, they collected two more records against the Hurricanes. The victory was their 57th of the season, which ties the 1970-71 club for most in a single season in franchise history. Boston also notched their 27th road win, which is the most ever in the illustrious organization’s history.
— Jeremy Swayman continued his strong showings in net as he stopped 34-of-37 shots and came through with two critical stops in the final seconds of overtime to get the Bruins to a shootout.
“The guys did such a good job defending and get some offensive chances, so I had to do my job,” Swayman told NESN’s Adam Pellerin as seen on the network’s postgame game. “But seriously, the guys in front of me made it easy and I wanted to make sure I got us to that shootout if we needed to.”
— The Bruins have had trouble winning in Carolina over the last few years, dropping six straight games in Raleigh. Sunday’s win was Boston’s first since May of 2019.
— Oscar Steen made his season debut as he was called up from Providence on an emergency basis with Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and Hampus Lindholm all out for the contest. Steen received just 8:56 of ice time and finished as a minus-one.
“Everybody gave us some really good quality minutes,” Montgomery told NESN’s Jack Edwards and Andy Brickley, as seen on the network’s postgame coverage. “Oskar Steen had a great chance to make it 4-1 midway through the second there. I thought the second period was a great period by us on how to play together as five-man units and transition pucks real quick.”
— Jakub Lauko made his presence felt in the lineup as the 22-year-old scored on a wicked wrister in the second period. But Lauko had to be helped off the ice after an awkward collision into the boards with 7:33 left in the third period. According to The Boston Globe’s Matt Porter, Lauko sustained an upper-body injury and will be OK.
— The Bruins return to Boston for a matchup with the Nashville Predators on Tuesday night. Puck drop from TD Garden is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET, and you can watch the game, plus an hour of pregame coverage, on NESN.
