Marchand, Bergeron Power Bruins Past Carolina in Game 4

BOSTON -From the outside, the Bruins were in quite an unenviable position on Sunday afternoon.
Despite gathering some momentum with a thrilling victory in Game 3 on Friday night, they still trailed their first-round matchup against the Carolina Hurricanes, 2-1. And they were still without top pair blue liner Hampus Lindholm, sidelined with an upper-body injury since taking a heavy hit from Carolina's Andrei Svechnikov in Game 2.
On Sunday morning, things got even more ominous with the news that back line stalwart Charlie McAvoy had entered into COVID-19 protocol.

Being down their top two defensemen for a critical Game 4 tilt was certainly not ideal, but fortunately for the Bruins, they are led by Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand, two players who have battled through their fair share of adverse circumstances across a decade-plus of postseason forays.
Boston's dynamic dug deep into that well of experience, combining for three goals and eight points to power the Bruins to a 5-2 victory over the Hurricanes at TD Garden to tie the series at two games apiece.
"These are the most fun games to play in when there's high emotion, high intensity, and there's so much riding on the line," said Marchand, who factored into the scoring on all five of Boston's goals. "I mean, if you can't play in these games, what are you playing for? This is what we love and always loved, and I think that's just kind of it. There's no better time to be at home in a game like this when the stakes are high and you have everybody.
"Because it's not just your dreams - it's your whole team's, the organization, it's the whole city that you see kind of come out in these situations, and there's a ton of reasons to play and to want to help the team win, and I think we all feed off that and look forward to that challenge.
"It's kind of hard to explain, because our whole group, we've always kind of been like that. We love the challenge of being in the playoffs and being in tough situations. It doesn't always go your way, but when it does, it's a hell of a feeling."

It certainly went the Bruins way on Sunday afternoon as they twice overcame one-goal deficits to tie the score, first on Bergeron's put-back tally with 3:51 to go in the first and second on Jake DeBrusk's power-play marker with 1:16 remaining in the middle frame. Boston took its first lead of the game just 44 seconds into the third when Marchand fired home a wrister from the top of the left circle off a feed from Charlie Coyle.
"That's what he does. It's who he is," Bergeron said of Marchand, who established a new playoff career-high with five points. "I think he's always finding a way to get better. Takes it on himself to help the team in any way he can. He always rises up to the occasion every time there's a big moment. There's no surprises there."
Marchand notched the go-ahead goal with one second left on Boston's 5-on-3 advantage which came after Bergeron took a nasty high stick from the Hurricanes' Sebastian Aho late in the second. Boston's captain was left bloodied and requiring stitches to the right of his right eye but was back on the ice to start the third period and finished the afternoon with three points (goal, two assists), while winning 70 percent of his faceoffs.
"That's the least of what Bergy's played through - a cut," said Marchand. "He's played with a hole in his lung and a broken rib, so there's not a whole lot that is going to keep him down. I mean, he has the most respect, I think, out of any player I've ever played with from our group. Just what he is willing to put his body through and play through is incredible, and that's why he's our captain and our leader, and that's something we feed off of. I wasn't surprised. That's him to T."
Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy also had high praise for the performance of his captain, who surpassed David Krejci for second on Boston's all-time playoff scoring list with his three-point outing. Bergeron (49-76-125) trails only Ray Bourque (36-125-161).
"We've talked about Bergy a lot around here," said Cassidy. "We know what he means to the team, what he brings. But high intellect player in every area tonight, faceoff circle, had a monster night against a real good team. And he's got the 'C' on his sweater for his reason. We don't win very many nights without him being who he is. He has been excellent the whole series. He's the oldest guy on our team and he looks some days like the youngest, so credit to him."
Bergeron and Marchand teamed up once more on David Pastrnak's insurance tally later in the third period. The trio reunited on Boston's top line in the middle of Game 2 and, despite having been apart for the better part of four months, their chemistry has picked up right where it left off.
That was abundantly clear on Pastrnak's goal, which came off a perfectly executed faceoff play. After Bergeron won the draw to the right of Carolina goalie Antti Raanta, Marchand curled around the bottom of the circle behind Pastrnak, who opened up as he drifted backwards toward the net.
Marchand then quickly delivered a feed through traffic to Pastrnak, who buried it with ease to put Boston on top, 4-2, with 5:41 gone in the third.
"Pasta, he's a one-of-a-kind player, he's such a threat every time he touches the puck," said Marchand. "Finds ways to get open, create plays, create havoc and made a couple of big plays tonight to get us back in the game and to get us an extra lead. He's a very dominant player in this league. Nice to have him out there, he creates a lot of room."

Playing Shorthanded

Cassidy said that the Bruins found out just before warmups that they'd be without McAvoy, forcing them to adjust the back end, which was already without Lindholm. Josh Brown was inserted into the lineup and skated alongside Mike Reilly for his postseason debut in Black & Gold, while Matt Grzelcyk paired with Brandon Carlo and Derek Forbort with Connor Clifton.
"A part of our motto has always been next man up," said Marchand. "Regardless of who is in or out of the lineup we have to do our job. Especially tonight, we knew the importance of the game and [McAvoy's] obviously a huge part of our team, controls the back end, and he plays a lot of minutes.
"But it's just another opportunity for somebody else to come in and Brown did a great job, played a great game tonight, and a lot of the D stepped up to fill that void. That's kind of how you have to do it; you have to collectively fill a hole when a guy like Chuckie is missing."
Despite being without McAvoy and Lindholm, the Bruins limited Carolina to just 26 shots on goal, as they furiously - and efficiently - protected the house in front of Jeremy Swayman, who made 24 stops for his second consecutive victory.
"I think we didn't have a choice," Marchand said of the team shaving to step up. "We're playing for our season. Yeah, it's tough when you lose guys like them; they're great players and they play big minutes. It doesn't mean you can roll over and fold.
"There's a lot of pride in the room and a lot of character, we've always shown that. Luckily, we were able to pull out a couple of wins."
Clifton ended up carrying the load on the back end from a minutes perspective, ending the night with 20:16 of ice time and six hits, both of which led all of Boston's blue liners.
"There's different people that have to step up, obviously the guys in the back end…it's Brownie's first turn, Cliffy is probably playing a little more," said Cassidy. "Just guys having to add minutes to their plate, which I think every player relishes. But getting it done in crunch time against a really good team like this is a compliment to them, obviously, being ready to go.
"I think we've always taken that approach here a little bit that you have to be able to play no matter who is in the lineup. We've always been about a team game. We have our leaders lead, our followers follow, and I think some of our followers back there did a real good job with that tonight blocking shots, being simple."

Building Confidence

After losing the first five games against Carolina (both regular season and playoffs), Marchand acknowledged that the Bruins had to regain their confidence against the Hurricanes. Two victories on home ice have, of course, helped that cause immensely.
"I think the toughest challenge with us that we've faced is that they were a dominant team against us earlier in the year and we kind of had to get our confidence back to where it was the second half," said Marchand. "I think we got it a bit more now, but we just have to focus on the way we've been playing, what kind of gets us going, what's been driving us the last couple games and try to bring it into the next one.
"It will be a lot tougher, there will be a lot more emotion, a lot more on the line, and that's a very, very difficult building to play in, and they're going to be ready to play. They're a hell of a team over there. They push back very hard, they always bounce back, and we're going to expect their best, so it's going to be a tough game for us. We've got our hands full next game."

Wait, There's More

-- Before the game Cassidy said that he believed Lindholm skated on Sunday morning. "He was here [on Saturday] working out, so he's coming along," said Cassidy. "He's trending well so Tuesday's definitely a possibility."
-- Bergeron said there was some concern immediately after he took the high stick from Aho late in the second that it may have nicked his eye. Fortunately for Boston's captain, the damage was just to the side and under his right eye and he was able to return for the third period.
"I think at first - it was really close to the eye - so I thought, my eye…there was blood in there," said Bergeron. "So, I couldn't see at first, it was blurry, and then I realized it was fine. Then, it's just a cut so you want to get back out there if you can. I guess the ref was saying that because they had to blow the whistle because of my injury I couldn't get back out there."