Minten has three points, Bruins keep Flyers winless

BOSTON -- Fraser Minten had a goal and two assists for the Boston Bruins in a 5-1 win against the Philadelphia Flyers at TD Garden on Saturday.

"He's fun to watch and he has good potential," said Bruins forward Pavel Zacha when asked about Minten's game. "I like the way he's grown as a player, and even in the locker room with the way he talks. It's good to see."

Zacha, Mason Lohrei, Marat Khusnutdinov and Casey Mittelstadt scored, and JJ Peterka had two assists for the Bruins (4-2-0), which finished a three-game homestand 2-1-0. Jeremy Swayman made 14 saves.

"I'm happy every line was creating chances today," Zacha said. "We had a lot of good looks, so it was all good today."

Porter Martone scored, and Dan Vladar made 27 saves for the Flyers, who have yet to win this season (0-4-2).

"It's not like we're not trying," Martone said. "These guys in this group, we care. I think a lot of people from the outside think it's lack of effort, but everyone in this room is giving it their all. We don't like this. We're not having fun right now. We want to win. We've got to find a different way. We need to start playing with some jam. We need to start playing with some edge. It feels like we're getting bullied out there and that's not the Flyers way and not how we want to play at all."

Zacha's first goal of the season gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead at 12:21 of the first period. David Pastrnak fed Zacha with a backhand pass in the high slot and his wrister knuckled toward Vladar, who got his left pad on it, but the puck trickled over the line.

"Every player wants to be a difference-maker every shift, so it felt good, going over the boards and knowing that we were going to create something every shift. We have to keep doing that because it's fun playing this way," Zacha said.

Lohrei increased Boston's lead to 2-0 at 17:12 of the second period. After Swayman made a blocker save, it helped the Bruins produce a 4-on-2 in transition, allowing Lohrei to jump into the play. Peterka fed Lohrei, who beat Vladar from the left circle.

"Most of the game, I'm just trying to get above whoever is forechecking me and sometimes the opportunity presents itself to get above that guy and find that ice," explained Lohrei. "Just trying to get up ice and be an option as the fourth guy. Fraser kicked it out and JJ made a great play to me. I wanted to go backdoor to (Khusnutdinov) but their defenseman took it away, so I shot it."

Khusnutdinov's point-blank goal pushed it to 3-0 at 1:55 of the third period, driving home Minten's pass from behind the net.

Martone cut the deficit to 3-1 with a power-play goal at 6:32.

"It was that time of the game we needed something to click, and it was nice for one to go into the back of the net," Martone said.

Mittelstadt made it 4-1 at 9:21, redirecting an Elias Lindholm centering pass through the five-hole.

Minten made it 5-1 at 15:59 with his second goal of the season. The 22-year-old signed a seven-year, $50.4 million contract ($7.2 million average annual value) with the Bruins on Sept. 8, which begins next season.

"I feel good out there," he said when asked to compare his game to a season ago. "I feel fast and feel like I can make plays and contribute, while still being good, and responsible defensively. I feel like my game is growing, for sure."

Flyers forwards Travis Konecny (lower body) and Cam York (upper body) did not play and are each day to day. Prior to the game, the Flyers announced that defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen was placed on injured reserve retroactive to Oct. 3 with an upper-body injury and that forward Nikita Grebenkin had back surgery and will be out at least four months.

"You've got to stick together," Flyers coach Rick Tocchet said. "We're at the bottom. We're in the muck right now. Hopefully we get some healthy bodies back, but you've just got to stick together. There's no other answer. We've all been, in life, in a situation where you're in a fox hole and we need some people to sit in a foxhole and stick together."

NOTES: Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy completed his six-game suspension, a ban he received for slashing Buffalo Sabres forward Zach Benson during Game 6 of the Eastern Conference First Round last season. He is expected to make his season debut at the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday. … Swayman tied Andy Moog (136) for the eighth-most wins in Bruins history. Peterka got his 200th NHL point (94 goals, 106 assists) and became the third-fastest Germany-born player to reach the milestone behind Tim Stutzle (229 games) and Leon Draisaitl (260 games).