Bruins Rebound with Win Over Vegas

LAS VEGAS - The Bruins scored three unanswered goals with tallies from Patrice Bergeron, Jake DeBrusk, and Charlie Coyle, while Linus Ullmark made 30 saves, to pick up a 3-1 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday night at T-Mobile Arena.
Boston was a highly motivated group after the club's controversial, last-minute loss in Arizona on Friday night - on top of a shootout setback to Vegas last week at TD Garden - with the Black & Gold's mantra of avoiding two losses in a row was, once again, at the forefront of their minds.

"We needed to reset. It was a tough ending to the game [in Arizona] - a game that we thought we played pretty well - and have a short memory. A building that's not easy to play in and a team that has motivation to beat us," said Taylor Hall, who picked up an assist and a game-high six shots on goal vs. Vegas.
"[Coach Jim Montgomery] said [at Saturday's practice] that we want to win every series against every team this year, and for us to do that, we had to get a regulation win tonight. It's a really good road win and a good way to end our road trip."
Here's more news and notes from the B's win over the Golden Knights:

All He Does is Win

Ullmark allowed a power-play goal to Mark Stone on his first shot of the night before making 30 consecutive stops to improve to 16-1-0 this season. The B's backstop made back-to-back breakaway saves in the second period, first turning away Ben Hutton, who exited the box and received a long-distance dish from Mark Stone, before breaking in all alone on Ullmark.
"He fired it in the spot where I thought he would shoot it," said Ullmark, who stymied Hutton with a flashy glove save. "He has a good shot. I was quick enough to get down on it there and kind of read it."
A few moments later, Ullmark denied William Carrier - who had sneaked past several Bruins into the slot to collect a feed from Keegan Kolesar - with a right pad stop.
"Just focus on the next puck always. That's the focus. You can't change what happened and keep moving forward," Ullmark said of allowing a goal on the first shot of the night. "They're a good team. It's gonna be a little bit of a bagger [tough game] there but I thought we defended really well, kept them to the outside, helped me see the shots…really good team effort."
Ullmark has now won eight consecutive games, tying a career high that he set earlier this season.
"I think you can ask any goaltender if they win more than they lose, they will feel good about themselves," said Ullmark. "It goes for me as well. Take it day by day. Now we won this one, had a good road trip and look forward to go home and prepare for Tuesday."
"He's such a stud. I just told him that," added Hall. "It's awesome playing in front of him. He makes us feel comfortable. He makes saves look easy. It's a fun goalie to play in front of."

Man in the Middle

With David Krejci sidelined and considered day-to-day with a lower-body injury (Montgomery said pregame the center has a chance to return on Tuesday against the Islanders), Pavel Zacha shifted to the middle to center Hall and David Pastrnak to start the game. Zacha landed four hits and a shot on goal, while picking up an assist on DeBrusk's tally, in 17:58 of ice time.
"I used to play center so it was nice to get the chance to play back," said Zacha. "But whoever I play with and whatever my position is, I know right before the game what my role is with the team and it's just easier for me to play like that.
"I just feel the trust from the coaches when they're trusting you playing wing or center, important minutes. On lines like this, it's trust from the coaches that I feel and I'm just trying to do my best in whatever role I get on the team."
Montgomery also praised Zacha's work at the other end of the ice.
"I thought he was really good down low in the D-zone," said Montgomery. "I thought he made a lot of support play all 200 feet."

Putting the Foot Down

With the game tied, 1-1, entering the third period, the Bruins - despite being outshot, 14-9 during the frame - put their foot down with two goals to secure the 3-1 victory. DeBrusk put the Bruins ahead, 2-1, when he buried a nifty feed from Zacha, who took a pass from Hall, patiently outwaited a diving Alec Martinez, and threaded a saucer dish through the slot.
"Hallsy I think made a great play there," said Zacha. "It was a hard play and gave it to me with speed. I knew that JD was coming. I just made the pass and he scored. But I think Hallsy made the play on the wall really hard."
"I just tried to win a battle," added Hall. "I know that Pavs is gonna be trusting that I can make that play. Obviously, he was in a great spot and he does the rest…and JD's ready for it on the backdoor. That's where we have to be on our 3-on-2 rushes. It was a big goal for us. In the third period, in this building, you want to control momentum.
"We weren't going to give away pucks for no reason. But there were also plays to made and that was a prime case of that."
The tally came shortly after Montgomery made a switch by reuniting Pastrnak with Bergeron and Brad Marchand, while slide DeBrusk down to play with Hall and Zacha, a trio that had success earlier this season when Krejci was sidelined by injury.
"We're very fortunate. We've got a lot of guys that can play different positions. We've got some guys that can play all three," said Montgomery. "That allows you to see who's going and put those guys together and hopefully things happen. That did tonight.
"Sometimes, you just get that feel that it's gonna be a tight game. If you think you have the best players, you should put them together and let them win it for you…when Krejci's not there, it's a little easier to make that switch at times.
"I did it in New York. That line - that was in the back of my mind - of Zacha, Hall, and DeBrusk scored a great goal in New York."
Coyle added some insurance at 9:04 of the third with a wrister from the left-wing circle through traffic to give Boston a two-goal lead.
"We knew, 1-1, going into the third, we're the best third-period team in the league," said Montgomery.

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