Van Riemsdyk scores twice, Bruins edge Predators

BOSTON -- James van Riemsdyk scored two goals, including the game-winner, for the Boston Bruins in a 3-2 victory against the Nashville Predators at TD Garden on Saturday.

Van Riemsdyk gave the Bruins a 3-2 lead with a power-play goal at 2:52 of the third period, redirecting Charlie McAvoy’s point shot.

“It’s a big part of my role. My job here is to be effective there [on the power play],” said van Riemsdyk, who scored his first two goals with Boston after signing as a free agent on July 1. “There’s some great players out there, so that makes it a lot of fun. Those guys obviously make a ton of great plays, and it’s my job to be around the net and capitalize when it’s my time to do that.”

David Pastrnak scored on a penalty shot and had an assist, and Jeremy Swayman made 33 saves for Boston (2-0-0).

“Faced a lot of adversity tonight within the game,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said. “It was a different type of game than Game 1 [against the Chicago Blackhawks], and we found a way to win.”

Colton Sissons scored twice, and Juuse Saros made 28 saves for Nashville (1-2-0).

The teams combined for 11 penalties, with the Bruins going 2-for-5 on the power play in addition to scoring on the penalty shot, and the Predators going 0-for-6 with 13 shots on goal.

“It was a little bit of a struggle,” Nashville coach Andrew Brunette said. “I’m not sure we were overly sharp early. I thought we were a little slow all over the power play, so it wasn’t crisp, wasn’t clean.”

Sissons gave Nashville a 1-0 lead at 3:29 of the first period. Kiefer Sherwood found Sissons on the rush inside the right face-off circle.

Van Riemsdyk tied it 1-1 on the power play at 14:48 of the first, bouncing the puck off Nashville defenseman Dante Fabbro’s leg and past Saros from below the goal line.

Bruins defenseman Derek Forbort played 6:10 on the penalty kill, and even pushed a puck away from the goal line after it slipped behind Swayman in the second period.

“It just goes to show his awareness as a [defenseman], as a hockey player in general,” Swayman said of Forbort. “But all my guys did that tonight. It was just blocking shots, having awareness in front of the net, boxing out guys, letting me see the first shot and second shot. It’s a big, defensive, dominant win.”

Pastrnak scored on the penalty shot to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead at 14:46 of the second period. He slipped through the neutral zone on a breakaway before Predators defenseman Alexandre Carrier held his stick. He glided in, dragged the puck behind him and whipped it to beat Saros high glove-side.

“I tried a couple different shots this summer, just working on that,” Pastrnak said. “It’s a fun shot, and a little different.”

Sissons tied it 2-2 at 16:54 on a delayed penalty, tipping in Roman Josi’s shot from the point. Sissons has three goals in his past two games.

“I think there’s a lot of good to take out of the game,” Sissons said. “[At] 5-on-5, we definitely had some spurts playing really good hockey, and generating chances and playing fast. There’s a lot of good to take, and a lot of stuff to learn from as well. We definitely got to watch the video and keep getting better here.”

NOTES: Pastrnak scored his second penalty-shot goal, becoming the fourth Bruins player to convert more than one. Brad Marchand (six), Woody Dumart (three) and Johnny Bucyk (two) are the other three. … The Bruins won their 10th straight regular-season game, dating back to last season’s 2-1 overtime win against the Columbus Blue Jackets on March 30.