The Boston Bruins capped off their five-game road trip with a dominant 7-0 victory over the Buffalo Sabres while playing on the second night of a back-to-back.
Following a third consecutive victory, Boston improved to 53-11-5. Buffalo dropped to 33-30-6.
You can check out the box score here.
ONE BIG TAKEAWAY
One of the biggest areas of improvement for the Bruins was in relation to getting off to faster starts, especially in matinee contests where sometimes the juice wasn't there at puck drop. Well, it wasn't a problem at KeyBank Center as the Bruins lit the lamp just 15 seconds into the contest and scored three times in the opening 20 minutes. While Patrice Bergeron got the Black and Gold on the board first, the contributions came from everywhere with seven (!) different goal scorers.
Garnet Hathaway made it a two-goal advantage nine minutes into the game and then a beautiful pass from Charlie Coyle resulted in Jake DeBrusk extending the lead to 3-0 less than 12 minutes in. Meanwhile, Tomas Nosek got into a bit of a scuffle and Trent Frederic also engaged in some extracurriculars in the first period. Frederic later dropped the gloves with Dylan Cousins midway through the second period as Boston continued its fast start with plenty of physicality. Boston didn't let up either with three goals in the final frame.
Another bonus? The Bruins killed off four power-play opportunities for the Sabres.
STARS OF THE GAME
-- Jake DeBrusk certainly impressed with his ability to outskate defenders and it led him to three points on a goal and two assists. DeBrusk's acceleration and feed to Hampus Lindholm for Boston's fourth goal was highlight worthy.
-- Jeremy Swayman earned his second consecutive shutout after he stopped all 27 shots he faced. Swayman ended the first period with an impressive stop on Buffalo's power play and his glove save on Sabres winger Jeff Skinner two minutes into the second period was among his best.
-- Bergeron joined DeBrusk with three points on one goal and two assists. His second assist resulted in David Pastrnak's third-period tally on a power play.
WAGER WATCH
Bergeron was 14-1 to score the first goal of the game at FanDuel Sportsbook. And any bettor who backed the Bruins captain needed to wait just 15 seconds before being handed the payout. Wins don't come much easier than that, especially those that would have paid out $1,500 on a $100 wager.
ON DECK AT NESN
The Bruins return to Boston after Sunday's game capped the five-game road trip. The Black and Gold will take the ice at TD Garden on Tuesday night against the Ottawa Senators. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. ET, and you can watch it live on NESN after an hour of pregame coverage.
