Pastrnak earns bragging rights against Swayman with All-Star Game performance

TORONTO -- David Pastrnak will have some bragging rights against Jeremy Swayman, his teammate with the Boston Bruins, after the two faced each other during the first semifinal of the 2024 Honda (U.S.) / Rogers (Canada) NHL All-Star Game at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday.

Pastrnak scored on Swayman with 32 seconds remaining to cut the lead to 3-2 before Connor McDavid tied it 3-3 with six seconds left. Pastrnak then scored again in the shootout to help Team McDavid advance to the final with a 4-3 win against Team MacKinnon.

“I wanted to score on him so bad,” Pastrnak said. “I was going to try everything I can to score.”

His first chance came on a breakaway, but Swayman stopped his backhand attempt with his right pad.

“I had breakaway, (and) I was hoping Sidney Crosby was going to let me go,” Pastrnak said. “He kind of backchecked me, so I was not ready for it. I run out of space, so [Swayman] got me on that one. I was a little worried that was it and that was my chance.”

It wasn't.

At 9:28 of the 10-minute second period, Pastrnak took a backhand pass from McDavid at the top of the right circle and scored glove side on Swayman.

“I don’t know if he let me score,” Pastrnak said. “He knows I shoot there on him in the practices. I haven’t got to talk with him much about it yet. It seemed way too open for 'Sway' on that shot.”

Pastrnak got him again in the shootout with a delayed move, faking as though he was going glove side before shooting high over the goalie's blocker.

“Yeah, he’s got a really good move there where he can deceive the goalie with a high glove shot or a high blocker shot,” Swayman said. “Him and I actually work on that quite a bit, and I can’t believe he got me tonight."

Swayman added that he expects to hear about it from Pastrnak when the Bruins resume their season against the Calgary Flames on Tuesday.

“I’m sure,” Swayman said. “That I got him on a breakaway during the game, so we can even it out. No, it was fun. It’s awesome to see him have success.”