Boston Bruins: Top 3 heroes against Winnipeg Jets

The Boston Bruins took on a tired Winnipeg Jets side on Thursday night, but that’s not to say they had an easy path to an eventual 5-4 victory.

In fact, the Boston Bruins spent large chunks of this game trailing the Jets on every one of their 4 goals. We certainly chose to do this the hard way in that regard, chasing the lead again and again.

However, when all was said and done, we came away with a valuable two points, which are vital in retaining the Atlantic Division lead and thus hopefully an easier first-round opponent in the play-offs.

When Kyle Connor gave the Jets a lead just seven minutes into the night, you did have to wonder whether this was going to be another of those missed opportunities for the Boston Bruins. They didn’t let that happen though and David Pastrnak evened things up before the first period ended.

A steady parade of players to the penalty box made for an interesting second period, with Andrew Copp first taking advantage of a Winnipeg power play before Pastrnak did the same for Boston. Jake Debrusk then grabbed a lead before Neal Pionk evened things up with Matt Grzelcyk sitting for an interference call.

The third period followed the same trend, albeit with less penalty box action; Mark Shiefele gave the Jets a 4-3 lead 7 minutes in, but Pastrnak countered with a hat-trick goal before DeBrusk completed his strong night adding the game winner for his second on the night.

There were certainly some less than impressive performances, but for the most part the Boston Bruins came out standing tall. A late scratching of Zdeno Chara saw them play with a less than optimum defensive group and can go some way to explaining the 4 goals conceded.

In all honesty though, a lot of it is the simple fact that the Winnipeg Jets aren’t a pushover side. They are in fact quite an attacking dynamo when they get going. Without further ado though, here are our three stand-out performers for the Boston Bruins: