Pastrnak has hat trick, assist to help Bruins spoil Miller's return to Rangers

BOSTON -- David Pastrnak scored a hat trick and had an assist for the Boston Bruins in a 6-3 win against the New York Rangers at TD Garden on Saturday.

“It helps as a line we’ve been playing some good hockey the past month,” said Pastrnak, who on Saturday was named the NHL’s First Star for January, when he had 24 points (11 goals, 13 assists) in 14 games. “We’re feeling confident and having good offensive games. We know what to expect from each other, and it’s a huge credit to my linemates (Pavel Zacha and Morgan Geekie) and I’ve been feeling much better lately.”

J.T. Miller scored twice in his return to the Rangers. New York reacquired the forward in a trade with the Vancouver Canucks on Friday along with defenseman Erik Brannstrom and Jackson Dorrington. The Canucks received forward Filip Chytil, defenseman Victor Mancini and a conditional first-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft.

Miller, 31, played six seasons for the Rangers (2012-18) after they selected him in the first round (No. 15) of the 2011 NHL Draft.

Miller, who will represent the United States in the 4 Nations Face-Off being held in Montreal and Boston from Feb. 12-20, played his 342nd regular-season game with New York and first since Feb. 25, 2018, when he also scored. He played on a line with Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad on Saturday.

“It’s kind of like a numb feeling,” Miller said of the previous 24 hours. “I’m very excited, very happy. It was a big game today for the team. … It was a hard-fought game, but definitely a long 24 hours. ... It’s a team effort here and obviously a special place here in New York, so I couldn’t be happier to be here now.”

Zacha had a goal and an assist, and Matthew Poitras and Brad Marchand each had two assists for the Bruins (26-22-6). Jeremy Swayman made 22 saves, and Pastrnak extended his point streak to 10 games (10 goals, 13 assists).

“It’s a lot of fun playing with him,” Zacha said of Pastrnak. “It’s my third year now and it’s a lot of fun. He helps the team so much to win games, and when you see him like this it’s great.”

Jonny Brodzinski scored, and Igor Shesterkin made 18 saves for the Rangers (24-23-4), who have lost three in a row.

“We make a mistake, it’s in the back of our net,” New York coach Peter Laviolette said. “[There are] things we need to do better and there are so many things that are preventable with what we’re doing. We’re not executing and getting it done -- not from a volume thing, it’s a quality thing. There’s a quality to it. We’re there, we need to execute something and we’re not executing it. ... We’ve got to be better. There are no excuses. At this time of the year we can’t have these things happen. It’s got to be tight the whole way through.”

Charlie McAvoy gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 10:21 of the first period, two seconds after their two-man advantage expired. His one-timer from the left face-off circle beat Shesterkin under the crossbar.

Miller tied it at 1-1 at 10:55. Bruins defenseman Brandon Carlo attempted to clear the puck along the boards when Panarin redirected it toward Miller, who was alone at the left hash marks and scored with a one-timer to the glove side.

Pastrnak gave Boston a 2-1 lead at 17:09. Poitras collected a loose puck behind New York’s net and quickly fed Pastrnak in front, where he beat Shesterkin to the glove side.

Charlie Coyle made it 3-1 at 3:39 of the second period by redirecting an Andrew Peeke point shot, and Zacha’s power-play goal pushed it to 4-1 at 17:10.

Miller cut it to 4-2 with his second of the game, a power-play goal 35 seconds into the third period.

“I thought he was great, especially under the circumstances and traveling, a new team, a new system and everything,” Laviolette said of Miller. “That line was really good and generated a lot of good things for us.”

Pastrnak then made it 5-2 at 1:21 with a one-timer from the high slot.

The Rangers pulled within 5-3 at 10:47 on Brodzinski’s tip from the slot, and Pastrnak completed the hat trick with an empty-net goal at 16:38 for the 6-3 final.

“That was obviously a big win for us, and we need to continue to give ourselves opportunities to win to be successful,” McAvoy said. “We played a good brand of winning hockey tonight and we were opportunistic. We earned a lot of the chances we got and we played a good game. We need to learn from this and try to put more of this together.”

NOTES: With eight 10-game point streaks in his career, Pastrnak passed Bobby Orr for the second most in Bruins history, behind Phil Esposito (10). ... Marchand had his 243rd multipoint game and passed Patrice Bergeron for sixth in Boston history. ... Zacha played his 600th NHL game. ... Bruins defenseman Michael Callahan (upper body) left the game early in the second period after taking a puck to the face and needed dental work. There was no update on his status. ... Miller’s past two goals for the Rangers have come 2,533 days apart. ... New York forward Adam Edstrom (lower body) left the game midway through the second period. There was no update.