Colorado Avalanche defensemen had their hands full at TD Garden in a 5-1 loss to the Boston Bruins.
Bruins forwards led by David Pastrnak and Taylor Hall, who each had three points, stunned the visitors with a sustained forecheck. They gave the Bruins their first home win over the Avalanche in 15 years.
Only Erik Johnson did not finish the game with a negative differential among Colorado defenders. Jack Johnson, Cale Makar and Samuel Girard all finished their day at 2 under.
David Pastrnak opened the scoring first with his 26th goal of the season. He added a goal and an assist to his tally.
During the clash between the two teams on January 26, Taylor Hall had checked Nathan MacKinnon and the latter had been forced to miss four games due to a broken nose. Hall hurt the Avalanche in another way on Monday with three assists. He was an accomplice on the goals of Patrice Bergeron, Pastrnak and Charlie Coyle.
Jake DeBrusk was the other Bruins scorer who still forced Darcy Kuemper to save 40 pucks in the loss.
Jeremy Swayman was much less busy in net with 29 shots and only yielded to Nathan MacKinnon on the power play.
Stay in Pennsylvania perfect for the Canes
Brett Pesce broke the ropes with 18 seconds left in overtime, and the Carolina Hurricanes won 4-3 over the Philadelphia Flyers.
Hurricanes 4 – Flyers 3 (Prolongation)
Pesce beat goaltender Martin Jones with a shot into the top corner, giving the Canes a third win in four days.
Carolina now has 18 victories on adversary rinks, which is an NHL high.
The Flyers fought hard, coming back from a one-goal deficit three times, including one last time on a goal by Oskar Lindblom at 15:07 of the third period.
Nino Neiderreiter, Teuvo Teravainen and Vincent Trocheck were the Hurricanes’ scorers in regulation time.
In addition to Lindblom, Gerry Mayhew and Patrick Brown managed to score at the expense of Frederik Andersen, author of a performance of 38 saves.
Andersen reserved one of his finest saves of the game for Cam Atkinson, who ended up alone in front of him in overtime. His backhand feint, however, did not flinch the Danish goalkeeper.
Jones has blocked 27 shots for the Flyers, who have lost their last five games.
The Canucks give Driedger no rest
A barrage of shots set the Vancouver Canucks up convincingly 5-2 over the Seattle Kraken.
The Canadian team directed a total of 46 shots on Chris Driedger’s cage, which was a season high. The Seattle keeper finished his night with 41 saves.
The Canucks wasted no time getting on the board when Tyler Motte flashed the red light 11 seconds into the first period. The Kraken replied with two goals, the first coming from the stick of Jared McCann. Mark Giordano then accepted the lobbed pass from Joonas Donskoi to stand alone in front of Thatcher Demko and the defender hit the mark shorthanded.
Travis Hamonic tied the game with his first goal of the season which also allowed him to reach the milestone of 200 points in the NHL. Vasily Podkolzin took advantage of a throw return granted in the slot by Driedger to put the Canucks in control.
Bo Horvat doubled the lead in the third period on a power play and Tanner Pearson closed the books in an empty net. Demko for his part repelled 25 pucks.
