Bruins Bounce Back with Shutout of League-Best Canucks

BOSTON -- Linus Ullmark made 17 saves, and the Boston Bruins ended the Vancouver Canucks’ 12-game point streak with a 4-0 win at TD Garden on Thursday.

It was Ullmark’s first shutout of the season and seventh of his NHL career.

“I was very impressed [with the defensive effort],” Ullmark said. “We said that beforehand that it wasn’t tolerable to do what we did last game (a 4-1 loss to the Calgary Flames on Tuesday), and the guys really took it to heart. We came out there flying. Obviously, you see [Brad Marchand], he goes out there and scores a highlight-reel goal, and after that we just kept on going.”

The Bruins tied the Canucks atop the NHL standings (73 points).

Pavel Zacha had a goal and an assist for Boston (32-10-9), which has won eight of its past 10. Marchand and Danton Heinen each scored a short-handed goal, and David Pastrnak and Charlie Coyle each had two assists.

“[We] didn’t give up odd-man rushes,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said. “I think that was the most pleasant thing because when you’re with a lead, you don’t want to give them opportunities to get back in it either by taking penalties or giving up odd-man rushes, and I liked the way we continued to hang on to pucks in the offensive zone.”

Thatcher Demko made 21 saves for Vancouver (34-12-5), which was 10-0-2 during its streak.

“It’s our first [regulation] loss in a while, so if you’re going to lose, I guess you’re going to throw a dud. That was a dud,” Canucks coach Rick Tocchet said. “I mean, two shorthanded goals [allowed], you can’t have that. It’s obviously a learning lesson.”

Marchand gave Boston a 1-0 lead 32 seconds into the game. Coyle picked up Demko’s misplayed pass from behind the net and centered the puck to Marchand on the doorstep.

“I need to make a better play there,” Demko said. “I was trying to just get it over to [Quinn Hughes], I just put a little too much mustard on it. It’s an unfortunate play by me, so I take responsibility for it.”

Heinen made it 2-0 at 15:37 of the first period. Coyle sprung him out of the defensive zone, and Heinen split Hughes and Elias Pettersson to finish off the breakaway.

“Our penalty kill hasn’t been up to par from where we started this year,” Coyle said. “So that, to me, we wanted to get better at. You’re not looking to score on the [penalty kill]. When the time is right, the opportunity presents itself. You jump to those, but it just happened to work out that way because I think we’re playing the right way.”

The Bruins scored twice within 15 seconds in the first minute of the second period to push the lead to 4-0. Morgan Geekie scored when the puck took an awkward bounce off his stick and was poked in by Canucks defenseman Tyler Myers at 34 seconds, and Zacha scored from the slot at 49 seconds off a pass from James van Riemsdyk.

“It’s a good challenge for us to kind of battle test us here,” Bruins defenseman Hampus Lindholm said. “We talk about the process here, it’s just one hockey game. We look forward to more training and getting to the next game, but of course [Vancouver’s] a really good hockey team, so we played them really well.”

NOTES: Marchand scored the third-fastest game-opening, short-handed goal in NHL history. Wayne Gretzky and Dirk Graham share the record at 30 seconds, each accomplishing it less than two months apart in 1986 (Graham on Oct. 18; Gretzky on Dec. 10). … Marchand reached 25 goals in a season for the 10th time, second in Bruins history behind Johnny Bucyk (11). … Coyle extended his point streak to 10 games (15 points; four goals, 11 assists).