Rask makes 29 saves, Bruins defeat Coyotes for sixth straight win

BOSTON -- Tuukka Rask made 29 saves to help the Boston Bruins extend their winning streak to six games with a 4-2 victory against the Arizona Coyotes at TD Garden on Saturday.

Boston (34-10-12) has won its past 16 games against Arizona (27-23-7). The Coyotes last defeated the Bruins on Oct. 9, 2010 in Prague.
Charlie Coyle scored two goals for Boston, and Rask extended his home point streak to 18 games (12-0-6), passing Gilles Gilbert (16 wins with one tie to start the 1973-74 season) for the longest run by a Bruins goalie to begin a season.
"I think we play like a good team at home and we battled back from some multigoal deficits in the third period," Rask said. "I think that just shows how resilient we are as a group. And you know I just try to give us a chance to win and just work to get a point at least."
WATCH: [All Coyotes vs. Bruins highlights]
Adin Hill, who was named Arizona's starter just before game time because of a lower-body injury to Antti Raanta, made 29 saves for the Coyotes, who started a four-game road trip by losing for the seventh time in their past eight games (1-5-2).
"We played hard. They had a couple of, two or three power-play goals, couple of fluky ones," Arizona coach Rick Tocchet said. "Tough one. But I thought we played hard, had a couple of looks there to tie it. You know, proud of the way we played. Tough circumstances, we played a good game."

Bruins defenseman Jeremy Lauzon was assessed a match penalty for an illegal check to the head against Coyotes forward Derek Stepan at 19:39 of the first period. The Bruins held off the Coyotes during the five-minute power play until Phil Kessel scored at 3:26 of the second period to give Arizona a 1-0 lead.
Kessel stole Zdeno Chara's clearing pass and beat Rask to the short side with a wrist shot.
"I think we did some good things on our [penalty kill], and you kind of use that to your advantage and you can't let it hamper you just because they got that one on the end there," said Coyle, who helped the Bruins go 3-for-4 on their penalty kill. "But I think that helped us. We've got [Rask] back there making saves when need be, but that's something we've got to take pride on, that penalty kill."

Boston tied it 1-1 on a goal by Coyle at 6:50 off a backhand pass across the crease from Charlie McAvoy. Patrice Bergeron scored a power-play goal at 12:06 to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead.
Jake DeBrusk scored a power-play goal at 14:35 to make it 3-1.
Jakob Chychrun scored 26 seconds into the third period to cut it to 3-2.
Coyle scored into an empty net at 19:11 for the 4-2 final.
"After giving up those three goals, we stuck with it in the third and we gave ourselves a chance," Chychrun said. "Their goalie made some big saves, and we couldn't find a way to tie it up."

They said it

"He kept us in it, made some huge saves on some high-end players, guys who are the tops in the League in scoring. So you've got to give him a ton of credit on very short notice." -- Coyotes defenseman Jakob Chychrun on goalie Adin Hill
"I thought he was tracking pucks well. I liked his puck-handling. He seems to be very dialed in to when he gets it, wants it, play it and move it and get it to the right spots and get us going on the breakouts so we can play fast. I like all those things about his game." -- Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy on goalie Tuukka Rask

Need to know

Lauzon will have a hearing with the NHL Department of Player Safety on Sunday for an illegal check to the head against Stepan. ... Kessel played his 831st consecutive game, the sixth-longest streak in NHL history. … Raanta is day to day. … The Coyotes have lost their past six road games; the Bruins have won five straight at home. … The Bruins played without defenseman Brandon Carlo, who left to tend to a personal matter. He's expected to play at the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday. … Bill Durnan (25 games for the 1943-44 Montreal Canadiens) and Tony Esposito (20 games for the 1970-71 Chicago Blackhawks) are the only NHL goalies with longer home point streaks than Rask from the start of a season. … The 16-game winning streak against Arizona is the longest by Boston against a single opponent. The previous record was 15 wins against the Philadelphia Flyers (Oct. 25, 1970-Dec. 17, 1972).

What's next

Coyotes: At the Montreal Canadiens on Monday (7 p.m. ET; RDS, TSN2, FS-A PLUS, NHL.TV)
Bruins: At the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday (12:30 p.m. ET; NBC, TVAS)