With the Bruins down, 1-0, McAvoy got Boston on the board midway through the second period. After Detroit failed to fully clear a Brad Marchand rebound, the puck squirted out into the slot where McAvoy collected it, danced around a lunging defender, and ripped home a wrister blocker-side to tie the game with 8:01 gone in the middle frame.
"Little bit of puck luck," said McAvoy. "I think when they were trying to get it out it looked like the forwards kind of had their backs to the play trying to make a good defensive play…tried to piggyback off of them and kind of pick up the puck.
"I was lucky enough that it kind of landed there for me and bit of a puck battle and I was able to get it and just get a shot off it and lucky enough to see it go in."
McAvoy was back in the mix just a few moments later when Charlie Coyle tipped home his blast from the point to put Boston up, 3-1, and cap a stretch of three goals for the Black & Gold in a span of 4:29. It was McAvoy's 21st assist of the season, tying his total from a year ago and leaving him just four shy of his career high of 25 set as a rookie in 2017-18.
"He's really finding his game all around," said Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy. "He was solid at the start of the year. I think he's cleaner - breakouts, defending, just his overall game, it just looks like he found his groove now. Good to see him shoot the puck. I know in the back of his mind, he saw [David Pastrnak] over there and was thinking, 'Should I throw it over there?'
"But he's done a little more of that lately, and I think the goals are going to start to come for him because he has the puck a lot. So, it's good. It's as good as he's played all year, I think, recently. Maybe that first goal, the monkey off his back, had something to do with it. I don't know, maybe he can answer that, but he's sure giving us solid minutes in each end."