After bounce back victories in Winnipeg and Minnesota to move to .500 on the road trip, the Boston Bruins rolled into Buffalo to complete the road trip and did so with a resounding statement, thumping the Sabres with a 7-0 victory for their third straight win.
The first and third periods had three goals apiece for the Bruins, with one goal coming in the second period. The Bruins are now 53-11-5 and are 7-3-0 in their last 10 games. Jake Debrusk’s four point game and a three point game from Patrice Bergeron led the Bruins on the scoresheet.
With all that said, it’s takeaway time!
Fast start, fast results
Just like in Winnipeg, the Bruins came out to a fast start. This one was a little faster, as captain Bergeron found the back of the net just 15 seconds in. Newcomer Garnet Hathaway extended the lead on a breakaway goal nine minutes into the game, and DeBrusk scored at the 11:40 mark of the first. Fast starts tend to work out well for the Bruins this season.
Load management line shifting
The afternoon lines 🙌 pic.twitter.com/YqB8zJTsEg
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) March 19, 2023
We were treated to some line blending as the load management stretch of the season comes into play. The top line of Marchand-Bergeron-DeBrusk stayed the same, as did the fourth line of Lauko-Nosek-Hathaway. Matt Grzelcyck and Charlie McAvoy stayed together on defense, as did Hampus Lindholm and Brandon Carlo.
However, the middle two lines saw some shakeups, as did the third defense pair. Dmitry Orlov took a breather this time, and with Derek Forbort injured, Jakub Zboril slid in to play alongside Connor Clifton. Zboril had 18:34 of ice time with one assist, two blocked shots, and three hits.
The Czech line saw a shake up, as David Krejci was given the day off. That slid Pavel Zacha to the middle and brought up Tyler Bertuzzi to play with Zacha and David Pastrnak. Bertuzzi appeared to score a goal in this one, but it was brought back due to a kicking motion.
Boston’s third line also saw a change as Bertuzzi moved up to line two. AJ Greer came back into the lineup and played alongside Charlie Coyle and Trent Frederic, finishing with one shot on goal and one hit in 13:09 of ice time.
Sizzling hot Pasta
Whether it was talk about his goal scoring prowess or his contract extension, David Pastrnak has dominated talk surrounding the team all season. Pastrnak scored goal number 48 of the season on Sunday, coming on the power play in the third period. He now has three goals and four assists in his past five games, and tied his career high for goals in a season, set in 2019-2020.
Happy Sway day
After leading the Bruins to a shutout win in Winnipeg on Thursday, Jeremy Swayman was back between the pipes to close out the road trip. He put together another shutout, making 26 saves on the day. It was his fourth shutout of the season, moving the Alaska native into a tie with Darcy Kuemper and Ilya Sorokin for second in the NHL.
Up next
The Bruins return to Causeway Street for a three game homestand and five games out of six to end March. Their next game comes on Tuesday night against the Ottawa Senators, with puck drop scheduled for 7:05 PM Eastern Time as the Bruins go for win number four in a row.