Brad Marchand scored twice in the first period and Pavel Zacha add two goals in the third as Boston completed a back-to-back stretch of games on Wednesday.
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ELMONT, N.Y. — There was no time for exhaustion.
Or excuses.
Playing their sixth period in two nights, the Bruins dug deep and scored three third-period goals to slap a 6-3 loss on the Islanders Wednesday night at UBS Arena.
“It’s what you train all summer for,” said Andrew Peeke, who assisted on Pavel Zacha’s game-winner. “I feel good. Just manage your shifts, manage the puck, keep the game in front of you, and good things happen.”
The good thing on Thanksgiving Eve was the third victory in four games since Joe Sacco took over behind the bench, boosting Boston’s record to 11-10-3.
Boston had squandered leads of 2-0 and 3-2 but responded with a strong final 20 minutes on the second night of back-to-backs.
“Well, it shows good character, right? I think that it could have been like, ‘Oh, we’re not holding onto the lead,’ and get discouraged, but we didn’t do that. We just kept with the message, which is just keep playing,” said Sacco. “This is the game of hockey. Things happen quickly out there and just keep playing. Stay focused on the next shift. Don’t look behind and I thought our guys did a pretty good job of that.”
As brake lights lit up the Long Island Expressway and Cross Island Parkway, the Bruins came out with their foot on the gas pedal, racing to a rare two-goal lead early in the first period.
Ironically, it was a bit of traffic snarl that led to Boston’s first strike.
Three Islanders parked themselves in front of goaltender Ilya Sorokin prior to a faceoff to his right.
Elias Lindholm beat Casey Cizikas cleanly off the drop, sending it to Brad Marchand, who one-touched through the gridlock in front and past Sorokin, who never saw it, just 57 seconds in.
It was the seventh of the season for the captain, who suited up for his 1,053d game, moving him past general manager Don Sweeney for fourth on the franchise list. Only former captains Ray Bourque (1,518), Johnny Bucyk (1,436), and Patrice Bergeron (1,294) are ahead of Marchand.
Not satisfied, Marchand popped in his eighth just over five minutes later.
Zadorov started the play, sending one from deep in the Boston end to Lindholm, who redirected to Justin Brazeau. The big winger couldn’t corral it as he tangled with a defender, but the puck trickled to Marchand, who was trailing the play, and he went backhand-forehand to beat Sorokin under the glove at 6:31.
Islanders coach Patrick Roy, whose favorite colors have never been Black and Gold, called a quick timeout to settle down his team.
It worked as New York played less frenetic following the stoppage.
Boston pushed the pace in the third and were rewarded with Zacha’s two quick strikes that sank the Islanders.
“It was good. I think as a line we’ve been creating a lot of chances and as a team the last two games, outshooting the team,” said Zacha, who has five on the season. “And you know it’s coming when you keep creating and I’m happy that today we finally scored more than one or two goals and won a game.”
