Recap: Pastrnak nets hat trick, Rask wins in Bruins’ return

The 2022 Boston Bruins kept on rolling on Thursday with a 3-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers.

David Pastrnak recorded his 11th career hat trick and Tuukka Rask stopped 25 of 27 shots against to pick up the win in his return to Boston.

Boston has now won four in a row for the first time this season and are 7-1-0 in the new year. They improved to 21-11-2 while the Flyers are winless in six straight and drop to 13-16-7.

1st period

Another day, another hot start for one of Boston’s top stars. Less than two minutes into the contest, Pastrnak got the Bruins on the board.

A weird bounce off the board and Travis Sanheim misreads the direction of the puck. It goes to Taylor Hall who dishes to Erik Haula who gives to Pastrnak for the shoot and score.

About three and a half minutes later, it was 88 again on the power play.

Excellent job by Brad Marchand to look like he’s shooting then he passes to Pastrnak.

A dominant first period again by the B’s and it ends with a two-goal lead.

2nd period

It started in the first and boiled over into the second as Tyler Lewington introduced himself to the Bruins’ crowd by dropping the gloves with Zack MacEwen.

He likely won’t be an NHL regular but he’s got that grit factor and sandpaper that makes him tough to play against.

The Flyers were able to get on the board with a power play goal by Cam Atkinson to cut the lead in half.

Nothing Rask could do on that one. Great tip by Atkinson.

The Flyers nearly tied it with a breakaway by Atkinson minutes later but Rask came up with the big stop.

However, the Flyers finally got a second one through. Joel Farabee made a neat move around Charlie McAvoy and finsihes off a give-and-go with Atkinson.

Not a great step up by McAvoy where he gets neither man or puck.

But the Bruins would get a 5 on 3 minutes later and Pastrnak completed the hat trick in emphatic style.

https://twitter.com/NHLBruins/status/1481825422698590209

A sloppy second period, but one that the Bruins still had a lead after.

3rd period

It was another not-so-great period by the B’s, but Rask was there to make the big saves, including another breakaway stop, this time on Farabee.

https://twitter.com/NHLBruins/status/1481834983614468101

It was a god awful turnover by McAvoy that led to the breakaway, but Rask bailed him out.

The Bruins made it interesting, getting whistled for back-to-back delay of game penalties which gave the Flyers a later 5 on 3. But Boston was able to kill both penalties and shut down the Flyers, who played a man up with the empty-net for the last 3:30 of the game.

A win is a win, and it’s the fourth in a row for Boston, 3-2 the final.

Notes

• Remember when Pastrnak scored the goal against New Jersey to break the slump and everyone thought maybe this is the beginning of Pastrnak going scorched Earth on everyone? Yeah, they were right. Third multi-goal game in four games, up to eight goals in January alone after a goalless December. Pasta is piping hot right now
• So 11 hat tricks in Pastrnak’s career and he’s only 25 years old. That’s good right, like really fricken good?
• You know who else is hot? Mr. Marchand who was SNUBBED OF AN ALL-STAR SPOT but i digress. 2 assists against Philly, extending the point streak to five games. 13 points in December and 11 in his last five games. Again that’s ALL-STAR PRODUCTION RIGHT THERE
• With Pasta’s hat trick on Thursday and Marchand’s on Wednesday, it’s the first time since 1998 the Bruins have had back-to-back hat tricks
• OK so this Rask guy is pretty good eh? There were times he looked a bit rusty, but that’s expected. Not much he could do on either goal and he made two big stops on breakaways, as well a few late in the third. The tandem of Rask-Ullmark could be a top tier goaltending duo
• How about getting a wi with half of your defensemen being AHLers? Urho Vaakanainen looked great again, especially late in the third. Jack Ahcan doesn’t care that he’s of smaller stature, he’ll go into a corner with anyone. And Lewington showed he’ll stand up for any teammate, even one he just met
• Alright so this game wasn’t pretty. The first? Excellent! The second and third? Definitely not! Some sloppy, sloppy play by the Bruins that nearly cost them this game
• Charlie McAvoy in particular had a ROUGH night. Horrible step up on the Farabee goal. Turned the puck over to Farabee in the third for the breakaway. Almost did the same thing in the first before covering his butt with the back check and breakup. I don’t know if the injury is still lingering but I don’t think you can blame that, these are mental mistakes by McAvoy
• This message is for Brandon Carlo and Charlie Coyle – let’s not shoot the puck over the glass late in the game and have to sit for a delay of game, OK? OK

Alright so can the Bruins make it five in a row now? We’ll have to see. It’s a tough three-game stretch coming up with Nashville on Saturday, Carolina on Tuesday and Washington on Thursday.

But this Bruins team is looking real good and can keep the good times of 2022 rolling.