Blackwood gets first NHL win, Devils defeat Bruins

BOSTON --
Mackenzie Blackwood
made 40 saves for his first NHL win when the New Jersey Devils defeated the Boston Bruins 5-2 at TD Garden on Thursday.

Blackwood was making his second NHL start and fourth appearance. He was 0-1-0 before the win.
"Feels good," the 22-year-old said. "I'm happy to finally get the first win, and you know the team played awesome for me. Really made my job a lot easier, and you know it's definitely one of those ones that you're not going to forget."
WATCH: [All Devils vs. Bruins highlights]
Blake Coleman scored twice, and Damon Severson, Kyle Palmieri and Nico Hischier scored for the Devils (13-16-7), who were without leading scorer Taylor Hall because of a lower-body injury.
New Jersey, which won for the fourth time in 19 road games this season (4-12-3), won for the second time in its past six games (2-3-1) and ended a six-game road losing streak against Boston. The Devils had lost 12 of the previous 13 games here (1-9-3).

Chris Wagner and Patrice Bergeron scored, and Jaroslav Halak made 28 saves for the Bruins (20-14-4), who have lost two in a row after a three-game winning streak.
Severson gave the Devils a 1-0 lead with a goal from the right face-off dot 25 seconds into the first period.
Palmieri scored a power-play goal at 15:25 to extend the lead to 2-0. Halak saved Palmieri's slap shot but the rebound went off defenseman Brandon Carlo's leg into the net.
"Just give them credit, they came out played their game much better than us early on," Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. "Having said that, I do believe the second goal gave them a lot of juice too. It's a fortunate goal, goes in off Carlo, not much happening and they've got a 2-0 lead. Jake [DeBrusk] hits a crossbar, then a second one hits a post. A break here or there the game probably evens out and then who knows where it goes from there?
"But we're chasing it the whole night, and when you chase it you usually end up not catching it. That's just the way it works in this league."

Wagner made it 2-1 at 15:07 of the second period with a backdoor drive to the net after a pinch down the wall and pass to the middle by defenseman John Moore.
Coleman's breakaway goal at 4:15 of the third period gave the Devils a 3-1 lead. He blocked Torey Krug's shot at the New Jersey blue line and won a race for a loose puck before scoring with a backhand.
Hischier scored at 12:43 to make it 4-1 on a 2-on-1 with Miles Wood.
"I thought we were ready to go skatingwise, mentally, and it was nice to get the early one and then get the second one quick," Devils coach John Hynes said. "And then I thought we did a good job for the most part playing with the lead, and I thought we were pretty consistent throughout the game."

With Halak off for an extra attacker, Bergeron scored on a tip-in from the top of the crease at 17:05 to make it 4-2. Coleman scored an empty-net, power-play goal to make it 5-2 at 19:12.

They said it

"You know we haven't had much of that where we've had a tandem goaltending … it's kind of been one guy (
Keith Kinkaid
) that's getting all the points. So the fact that Mackenzie came in and played well is a good sign and hopefully he can continue to be that type of guy for us."-- Devils coach John Hynes
"Not bad. It's just one thing you can't really practice is timing. That's one thing that you kind of need the most. Conditioningwise, strength was fine, everything was good. It's just to be in the right spot … that was kind of one thing that [was a problem]." -- Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara on returning after missing 19 games because of a knee injury

Need to know

Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy missed the game with a lower-body injury. Chara, DeBrusk and defenseman Kevan Miller each returned to the lineup. … New Jersey hadn't won in Boston since Oct. 26, 2013 (4-3). … Blackwood became the third Devils goalie to get his first NHL win against the Bruins (Sean Burke, March 5, 1988; Martin Brodeur, March 26, 1992). … Coleman had his second two-goal game in the NHL; his first was March 14, 2018 at the Vegas Golden Knights.

What's next

Devils: Host the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday (1 p.m. ET; SN, MSG+, FS-CR, NHL.TV)
Bruins:At the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; MSG-B, NESN, NHL.TV)