VANCOUVER – The Bruins reclaimed their game, and found the “EASY” button along with it here Saturday night, rolling up an insurmountable 4-0 lead by the midway mark of the second period and riding it to a 5-1 win over the Canucks at Rogers Arena.
Brad Marchand, Morgan Geekie, Pavel Zacha, and Marc McLaughlin scored on four of the first 23 shots against former BC goalie Thatcher Demko, helping to end a humbling two-game losing streak to begin a five-game road trip.
Jeremy Swayman, between the pipes
for Tuesday’s 8-1 shellacking in Winnipeg, turned back 19 shots against Vancouver for the win. Max Sasson broke Swayman’s bid for a second shutout this season with his goal 10:13 gone in the third period.
The Canucks scraped together only four shots in the first period and had only 11 by the time McLaughlin popped in the fourth goal 11:49 into the second period for his first strike this season .
David Pastrnak, who assisted on the first three goals, scored at the start of the third period to make it 5-0. The goal was only the third by Pastrnak in his last 14 games. His three assists lifted his career total to 400. His 1-3–4 line for the night gave Pastrnak a season high for points.
It was only the third time in Pastrnak’s career that he finished with a production line with a 3:1 ratio of assists to goals.
“Yeah, I’m a goal scorer,” said Pastrnak, who now has 11 goals through 32 games, far below his yield of 108 the previous two seasons. “but so far I haven’t been [a scorer] this year. I haven’t gotten the looks, you know. And we were struggling on the power play … it’s been coming the last three or four games. It’s for sure going to be better. I always look to make plays … and I don’t mind assists.”
“I thought it was just a solid team effort tonight. Everybody contributed in their own way,” Sacco said. “It started with our leaders tonight and our top players. They certainly set the example, how we want to play. A solid team win – that’s what I like most about it, and the fact we kept the puck out of our net.”
The road trip continues Tuesday night in Calgary, where
newest Bruin Oliver Wahlstrom, is expected to join the club. Desperate for goal-scoring, the Bruins picked up Wahlstrom, a 24-year-old right winger, on Saturday as a waiver claim off the Islanders.
After 120 zombie-like minutes in their two prior stops – Winnipeg and Seattle – the Bruins played an alert, solid opening 20 minutes here, with the strikes by Marchand (power play) and Geekie (5-on-5) providing an early 2-0 lead that the Bruins carried into the first break.
Marchand’s goal, a roof-job from near the right post, allowed the Bruins to play with a lead for the first time since Dec. 4. They had spent the previous three games, including an OT win over the Flyers on Dec .7, chasing leads.
“That,” said Sacco, “is a tough thing to do in this league.”
The Bruins also had a 15-4 shot advantage in the first period. They all but put a “Closed For Business” sign at their end of the ice, accentuating sharp defensive play and on their side of the red line and finally showing some poise in the offensive end.
A clear point of emphasis for the Bruins, evident in the first period, was to have sticks ready for tips. Demko turned back at least three tipped shots in the early going.
The Bruins will be off on Sunday, arriving in Calgary by their flight out of here late Saturday night. They landed with minds a little bit more at ease, and with Wahlstrom perhaps able to help juice up the offense.
“He’s a great shooter,” said Marchand, who said he talked by phone with Wahlstrom after the club’s move to pluck him off waivers. “A very dangerous shot. He’s almost like a big Pasta.”