Throughout most of the regular season, it never seemed like Pastrnak found his groove. He was coming off a season when he scored 95 points, including 48 goals to tie Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin for the NHL lead. He had right hip arthroscopy and labral repair in September, and after missing the Bruins' first seven games, made his season debut Jan. 30 and scored 14 points (nine goals, five assists) in his first nine games.
But he hit long lulls during the season, finishing with 48 points (20 goals, 28 assists) in 48 games. And yet, there was always the tantalizing threat of Pastrnak finding his scoring touch.
That time might be now.
"He's worked hard and he's gotten himself in a position to shoot the puck," Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. "We design him plays to get him his shot because he can score goals. We have a number of different looks. You watch practice, you see them.
"At the end of the day, good for him. He's a sniper. Maybe this gets him feeling better about his shot."
Pastrnak had one assist in each of the first two games of the series, but it was in Game 3 that he started to look more like the player that the Bruins -- and the rest of the NHL -- have come to know as a dangerous scorer, even though he did not score a point.
"I think he played well the other night," Cassidy said of Game 3. "He had [17] attempts, nine shots. He tried to attack the inside ice, cutbacks. He was around the top of the crease. The puck just didn't go in for him."
And it seemed, for the first half of the game Friday, like he might have the same bad luck.
That was perhaps most evident during a sequence at 13:13 of the second period when Pastrnak was stopped on a wrist shot by Capitals goalie Ilya Samsonov before getting the puck back, only to miss on a wide-open net.
"I just tried to keep shooting," Pastrnak said. "Even last game I think I had a lot of great opportunities to score and sometimes the goalie just made a good save or I rushed it a little bit. It's always good sign when you're getting the chances and you know it's right there.
"At the same time, sometimes it's frustrating when you're getting a lot of chances but it doesn't go in. But just going to stay with it and, for me, main focus is to keep shooting pucks."
Pastrnak finally scored 29 seconds into the third period on the power play, on a shot from the right circle, increasing the Bruins lead to 2-0. He had already earned an assist on a shot that was tipped by Brad Marchand at 8:00 of the second , also on the power play.
But, even before those points, Cassidy hadn't been worried.
"I just think there's some doubt sometimes -- when am I going to get my next one? I think that goes through scorers' heads," Cassidy said. "But I didn't see any frustration with 'Pasta.' Just stuck with it and got rewarded."
