Bruins defeat Avalanche for 14th consecutive win at home to start season

BOSTON -- The Boston Bruins extended their NHL-record home winning streak to begin a season to 14 games with a 5-1 win against the Colorado Avalanche at TD Garden on Saturday.

Boston (20-3-0) also tied the NHL record for fewest games needed to reach 20 wins with the 1929-30 Bruins (20-3-0) and 2012-13 Chicago Blackhawks (20-0-3).
"We work for each other," Bruins forward David Pastrnak said. "We obviously started [the] season without some key players to the team, and some other guys had to step up, and they did. And sometimes that builds up the confidence [individually], and then obviously that translates to the team."
Pastrnak and Trent Frederic each scored twice for Boston. Charlie McAvoy had two assists, and Linus Ullmark made 24 saves.
"I think we keep playing the right way and we're getting rewarded for it," Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said. "Colorado's very depleted, but still, that's a championship team and they know how to win."
Andrew Cogliano scored, and Pavel Francouz made 35 saves for Colorado (13-8-1). Artturi Lehkonen left the game in the first period with an upper-body injury.
"We're missing good players," Colorado forward Mikko Rantanen said. "One plus one is two, right? If you have good players, like big, important players back, it's different. But like I said, no excuses. Injuries happen in sports, and we're just in a little bit of a slide in that part."
Said Avalanche coach Jared Bednar: "We have to be mentally tough, that's the biggest thing. We still have the ability to win hockey games, although the margin for error is shrinking, and you feel like at times you have to be almost perfect in order to win. We certainly weren't that tonight."

Pastrnak gave Boston a 1-0 lead at 13:49 of the first period, lingering behind the power-play zone entry before finding space in the left face-off circle, where Brad Marchand set him up for a one-timer.
"[Facing Colorado] definitely makes you be more prepared," Marchand said. "You have to be dialed [in] if you're playing against that team.[Nathan MacKinnon's] line, every single shift they can break out and take over a game in one shift. I thought we did a good job. They're really tough to play against."
Frederic made it 2-0 at 18:51 of the first, tapping in the rebound of McAvoy's backhand attempt following a give-and-go with Pavel Zacha.
"The guys I play with help me a lot," Frederic said. "'Hallsy' [Taylor Hall] and 'CC' [Charlie Coyle] have been great putting confidence in me, and then also 'Monty' [Montgomery] has been great about it, so I kind of give credit to them, and it's been fun."
Jake DeBrusk nearly scored for the Bruins at 3:14 of the second period, but it was determined during a video review that the net was dislodged before the puck crossed the line.

Pastrnak pushed it to 3-0 on a breakaway at 4:48 of the second, deking around Francouz and going high after receiving a backhand breakout pass from David Krejci.
"Their whole team is just a really complete team," Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar said. "Every single guy on that team plays their role to perfection, and we knew it was going to be like that. Especially their defensemen] obviously, they go full press."
Tomas Nosek drew a penalty shot at 17:09 after Colorado defenseman
[Jacob MacDonald
brought him down at the net front, but Francouz stopped the attempt.
Cogliano then cut it 3-1 from the slot at 6:32 of the third period following a defensive miscue by Boston.
Frederic extended the lead to 4-1 at 15:32 on a 2-on-1 with Taylor Hall, and DeBrusk scored 10 seconds later on a rebound at 15:42 for the 5-1 final.
"It was just nice to score a goal," DeBrusk said of scoring his 100th goal. "I felt like I hadn't beaten a goalie in a while. I'm really happy to contribute obviously, I think every line did tonight, and [this was] just a little sweetener."

NOTES: Bednar did not have an update on Lehkonen's status postgame. … Pastrnak's multigoal game was his 46th in the NHL, moving within two of tying Peter McNab (48) for eighth in Bruins history. ... Frederic's multigoal game was the first of his career. ... Marchand had an assist to extend his point streak to six games (two goals, six assists).