Pastrnak Scores 50th Goal, Shorthanded B's Tie Team Record for Wins

RALEIGH - It could have been one of those nights for the Black & Gold.
The Bruins arrived at PNC Arena - a building in which they had not won since Game 4 of the 2019 Eastern Conference Final - just over 24 hours after their victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning at TD Garden, sans Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, and Hampus Lindholm.
Without three of their best players and at the end of a stretch of three games in four days, the Bruins easily could have conceded that a scheduled loss was in the cards.
But with this version of the Black & Gold, that, of course, is silly talk. For this club, no game is out of reach.

Such was the case again on Sunday evening when the Bruins pulled out a gutsy 4-3 shootout victory over the Carolina Hurricanes to tie the club's single-season record for wins with their 57th of the 2022-23 campaign.
"We just have to trim the fat, man," Charlie McAvoy joked when asked about winning without Bergeron, Marchand, and Lindholm. "No, I don't know. This kind of had the makings of that, I felt, coming in. We didn't have those guys, kind of a no-pressure game, really, because we're not fielding our normal lineup. And to still get a result was great. I thought we really were just playing for each other. It was a lot of fun."
With a trio of Boston's top dogs out of the lineup, A.J. Greer (back from a one-game suspension), Oskar Steen (recalled from Providence on Sunday), and Jakub Zboril subbed into the lineup, while the B's existing core of regulars stepped up to fill the void.
"It's obviously big," said David Pastrnak, who tallied his 50th and 51st goals of the season. "We've talked about it all year. It was an opportunity for other guys to step up and get more ice time. I think we've done a really good job. Our defensemen were moving the puck. I thought overall we played really quick.
"The first two periods I think we were the much better team. Unfortunately, we didn't put together a full 60 but that team over there is good. You kind of expect the push from them and it came but it was a very gutsy win from the whole group."
In addition to matching the franchise mark for wins set in 1970-71, the Bruins also won their 27th road game of the season, setting a new record as they surpassed the 1971-72 club's 26 wins away from Boston.
"Really, it's amazing that we've been able to achieve all that, especially when you think about all the great Bruins teams," said coach Jim Montgomery. "The fact that we've matched the highest win total. And I know it's a different era…still it's an incredible achievement in the salary cap era."

The Fusilli 50

Three years ago, Pastrnak was well on his way to his first 50-goal season, just two shy with 12 games to play. Nothing, it appeared, would stand in his way so long as he stayed healthy.
But then, the unthinkable happened. With the COVID-19 pandemic wreaking havoc across the world, the NHL shut down the 2019-20 regular season, cutting short Pastrnak's chase for 50.
It was that experience that made Sunday's achievement that much more meaningful.
"It's pretty special. It's even better with the win," said Pastrnak, who also registered the 600th point of his NHL career and a new single-season high in points (96) when he beat Freddie Andersen on a breakaway at 4:43 of the first period to put Boston up, 1-0.
"I came close a couple years ago. You never know what can happen. I had plenty of games to get there and, all of a sudden, Covid happened. It's definitely special. It's been a long way and obviously big thanks to all my teammates and my family. It's pretty cool. Even better to share it with the guys that I have here."
The play began with McAvoy collecting a loose puck in front of the Bruins' net and sending an outlet pass to Pastrnak in the neutral zone.
"I'm happy to be in the record books as a part of it," said McAvoy. "First 50-goal season. I'm so happy for him. He deserves it, he works very hard. He's an unbelievable hockey player…it's amazing.
"He puts himself in some very good company. He means so much to all of us on a personal level and then he's the hockey player that he is for the Boston Bruins. I'm so happy for him and what an accomplishment it is. It's very well deserved."
Pastrnak finished off the tally with some help from Carolina blue liner Brent Burns, who hustled to catch up to the B's winger on the backcheck, but inadvertently assisted on the marker when his stickcheck caused Pastrnak to lose the puck, which then trickled through Andersen's five-hole.
"That's how the game works. You have a couple chances [Saturday] night to get there, a couple breakaways and good chances that I wouldn't change much," said Pastrnak. "But it didn't go in last night. Today, you kind of lose the puck and it goes in. That's the game. I obviously take it…I'm not [Nikita Kucherov], I don't know how to do that on purpose."

Pastrnak, who later in the second gave Boston a 2-1 with a power-play marker for his 51st goal of the year, became the sixth player in Bruins history to register a 50-goal campaign. Overall, it's the 12th such season in club lore (Phil Esposito, 5; Cam Neely, 3; Johnny Bucyk, Ken Hodge, and Rick Middleton) and first since Neely in 1993-94.
He also became the third-fastest in B's history to reach 600 points (583 games) behind Bobby Orr (461) and Ray Bourque (569). Pastrnak's power-play goal was the 100th of his career, makig him one of just seven players in Bruins history to achieve that feat.
And per NHL Stats, Pastrnak notched his 53rd career multi-goal game, which is one shy of Bergeron for sixth-most in Bruins history, while also picking up his 30th multi-point of the season to become one of three Bruins in the last 20 years to do so (Marchand, 31 in 2018-19 and Joe Thornton, 33 in 2002-03).
"It means to me that I'm just happy he's on our team and we have him for another eight years," said Montgomery. "He's just a tremendous talent. I can't say enough about him. With Bergeron and Marchand back at home, you could see his leadership skills come out. I think he put the team on his back and he played the right way everywhere."
The winger, who donned one of the three A's against Carolina, echoed his coach's sentiments, saying that with his former linemates out of the lineup, he recognized the need to help fill the leadership void.
"Been learning from these two guys and [David Krejci] and [Tuukka Rask] for many years now," said Pastrnak. "We've been learning from them every day. You recognize when they are not here that you have to take a step forward a little bit - not on the ice but off the ice. That's the one thing they do. They lead on and off the ice. That's what kind of what you want to do when they're not here."

A Wink for the Win

Assistant coach Joe Sacco had a feeling. All night long, at each step along the way, he kept assuring Jake DeBrusk that the winger was going to notch the game winner.
So, when DeBrusk hopped over the boards with a chance to end things in the second round of the shootout, he peered back at the bench and delivered a wink.
"He kind of gave me a tap and we started laughing about it," said DeBrusk. "Sure enough, I went up second and I had a chance to win it. I just kind of looked back like, 'maybe you were right.' I was able to score. That's kind of the story behind it."
DeBrusk finished the story when he raced in on Andersen and beat the netminder with a rocket wrister to cap things, after Charlie Coyle had given the B's the upper hand to start the shootout and Jeremy Swayman (34 saves) stoned Brent Burns and Teuvo Teravainen.
"I think that helps a lot is having those situations over the years. It's one of those things where I feel like it's a 50/50. It's a coin toss…but at the same time, it's definitely one of those things where it's confidence," said DeBrusk. "It was nice, Sway put me in a good position, same with CC. I just tried to beat the goalie."

Lauko Leaves Early

Jakub Lauko tumbled awkwardly into the boards while chasing a loose puck late in the third period and needed assistance from the Bruins' medical staff to leave the ice, though it appears to winger avoided any serious injury.
"He's fine. It's not anything serious," said Montgomery. "He has an upper-body thing he's dealing with right now. But I think just with time it's gonna take care of itself. I expect him to be an option Tuesday, but I can't confirm that."
Before the injury, Lauko, once again, impressed in limited minutes, notching his fourth goal of the season with a pull-up wrister off the rush to give the Bruins a 3-1 lead with 8:14 left in the second.
"It's very fun to watch," said Pastrnak. "It's not easy to be up and down, especially with the depth we have. But every single time he came he's been lighting it up for us. Not just scoring but the work ethic he has and the job he has done every time he has come up and played here.
"It's been very noticeable. Obviously very happy for him. He's from Czech so it's nice to see him grow and play like he does."
Montgomery concurred, pointing to Lauko's effort as his best trait.
"Tremendous compete, winning his 1-on-1 battles," said Boston's bench boss. "Even racing down that one he fell there and came out of the game, that's a tremendous compete level. That's what we want. We want to be first on pucks, want to play fast. We know that's a perfect example of knowing where the puck's going so we can play fast and be on top of the other team.
"We don't know what his ceiling is yet. But we know that he's very beneficial to us in a fourth-line role. If he can climb the ladder, so be it. But that's a great start to his NHL career."

Wait, There's More

• Montgomery on Bergeron (illness) and Marchand/Lindholm (nagging injuries) sitting out: "Just day to day, we'll see how they are when we get back home," he said. "[Monday's] gonna be a day off so hopefully those two days help the nagging injuries that calms them down."
• Montgomery on calling his timeout after Carolina scored twice in a 2:07 span early in the third to tie the game, 3-3. "It was really, 'there's no need to panic here,'" he said. "We knew they were gonna come with a push. They made nice plays. We needed to be a little cleaner and run routes as a five-man unit in our breakouts and also hang on to pucks in the offensive zone. I thought we were starting to throw pucks away as guessing offense. We don't like to guess offense…they snowballed on us. That's what we talked about on the bench, this is playoffs, especially on the road. This is why you want to play in the NHL, this is why you want to play in the playoffs is because you want to overcome the hard. It's gonna get hard and you've got to find the way to overcome it. When you overcome it, that dressing room's feeling really good about themselves right now."
• Montgomery on the B's ability to overcome all the obstacles they faced on Sunday night: "We've had a lot of character wins in a lot of different fashions," he said. "But as we know, this is not an easy place to play in. It's a tremendous team. And I just like the way we kept playing. We had a little stretch there in the third where they took it to us and I thought after the timeout, we regrouped well and forged ahead and get back to our game."