Bruins Notes: Boston Sets Tone With Penalty-Kill Scoring Night

BOSTON — The Bruins returned to the ice in Boston on Thursday night with the priority of bouncing back from an ugly loss against the Calgary Flames on Tuesday.

From the opening minute against the Vancouver Canucks, the penalty-kill unit helped the Bruins do just that. After Jakub Lauko committed a holding penalty 17 seconds into the game, Brad Marchand picked up his teammate with a short-handed goal to put Boston on the board.

Later in the period, Danton Heinen did the same for David Pastrnak less than a minute onto the Vancouver power play to double Boston’s lead. In total, the Bruins killed off all five penalties in a 4-0 win over Vancouver.

After the win, Boston head coach Jim Montgomery praised Marchand and Charlie Coyle for elevating the penalty-killing efforts in the performance.

“They’re players with great habits and details,” Montgomery said. “When you combine will and skill, you have players that kill plays and make plays.”

“His instincts are one of the best I’ve seen,” Montgomery added on Marchand. “We have structure within our PK. There’s certain players within the structure that make plays and create offense or kill plays and get the puck down the ice.”

As one of the better units in the sport throughout the season, Boston felt a sense of urgency to restore the production of its special teams.

“I think we executed really well on the PK,” Bruins defenseman Hampus Lindholm told reporters. “Kind of getting back to the details. That’s something we’re going to bring into the next couple games here.”

Boston scored two short-handed goals in a game for the first time this season, setting the stage for goaltender Linus Ullmark’s first shutout of the year.

“Obviously, in our minds, it feels like we’ve been struggling in our PK,” Ullmark told reporters. “We haven’t lived up to our standard. It was also something we talked about before the game tonight to really buy in and do the right things. The guys really stepped up. It’s not too often that you get two short-handed goals in one period, especially right after each other. It also shows that we can score in any type of situation.

With a dominant victory over a top Western Conference contender, Montgomery’s team gave him the bounceback he wanted.

“It was, absolutely,” Montgomery added. “I just cared about where we were going to be mentally. Just go out and force the issue.”

Thursday night’s win had plenty of positives for the Bruins, none bigger than the trend-setting production from a top-10 penalty-killing unit in the NHL.

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Here are more notes from Thursday’s Canucks-Bruins game:

— Brad Marchand’s first-period goal is his 25th of the season, his second short-handed goal of the year, and his 12th career regular-season goal.

— The Bruins scored 32 seconds into Thursday’s contest, their fastest opening goal of the season, per NESN stats.

— Thursday marked the first time this season in which the Bruins scored multiple short-handed goals in a game, per NESN stats.

— Geekie matched a career-high with his ninth goal of the season, matching his tally from last season with the Seattle Kraken.

— Linus Ullmark recorded his first shutout of the season and the seventh of his NHL career.

— Marchand moved into ninth place in NHL history with 35 short-handed goals, per the team.

— The Bruins continue their lengthy homestand on Saturday afternoon at TD Garden against the Washington Capitals. Puck drop is set for 3:30 p.m. ET. The game will air on ABC.