Boston Bruins beat Colorado with a three-goal third-period Avalanche

Trailing 1-0 after two periods at home to the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday afternoon, things were looking bleak for the Boston Bruins. They were being outshot 19-8 and Colorado goalie Scott Wedgewood barely broke a sweat. In fact, his teammates were doing the job in front of him with as many blocked shots as shots that reached him.

For the second straight game, it was Morgan Geekie and David Pastrnak to the rescue again to the Black and Gold again.

Twenty-five seconds into the third period, David Pastrnak set up Morgan Geekie for the game-tying goal after coming out of the penalty box. Then just over four minutes later, the duo hooked up again for what turned out to be the game-winning goal for Boston, which got an empty-net goal from Pastrnak in the final seconds for the 3-1 final.

Boston's penalty kill was very effective in the game on both chances for the Avalanche. Late in the second and early in the third after Geekie's tying goal to keep the dangerous Colorado unit off the scoreboard. Here are some quick takeaways after the Black and Gold improved to 10-1-1 in their last 12 games at the TD Garden.

Quick Bruins' takeaways from win over Avalanche

• As mentioned above, the Bruins penalty kill was a perfect 2-for-2, but that was huge as Boston failed to get a chance the entire game. Win the special teams battle, more often than not, you win the game.
• A scary moment in the third period was when Brandon Carlo took a puck to the face, but the good news was he returned late in the game.
• The Bruins lived dangerously in their defensive end all game long and there were long stretches where they had to defend. A lot of those situations were self-inflected with failures to clear the puck out of the zone.
• A big reason why they survived those defensive zones long stretches was because of Jeremy Swayman who turned back 27 shots. He looked very good for someone who was pulled against New Jersey Wednesday night and missed the Ottawa game Thursday night with an injury. He would be the first to admit that the Avs goal by Artturi Lehkonen in the second period should have been a save.

• The Bruins struggled to sting any passes together through the first two periods, but when push came to shove, Pastrnak connected with Geekie on a pair in the third period for both of his goals.

• Elias Lindholm was money on face-offs going 14-for-17. Andrew Peeke led the Bruins with 22:43 in time-on-ice and right behind him was Parker Wortherspoon by 22 seconds. Charlie Coyle, Brad Marchand, Pastrnak (two), Peeke, and Pavel Zacha had the Black and Gold's assists in the third period.

The Bruins will be off on Sunday and then practice Monday before beginning a stretch of three games in five days on Tuesday against the Buffalo Sabres in Western New York. They return home to face the Winnipeg Jets (Thursday) and the New York Rangers (Saturday afternoon). Plenty of huge points for the standings are available.