Boston defeats the Flyers 6-2, with goals and assists from McAvoy and van Riemsdyk.
Philadelphia At Wells Fargo Center on Saturday, the Boston Bruins defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 6-2, with two goals and an assist from David Pastrnak.
Boston had goals from Danton Heinen and Charlie Coyle, with assists from Charlie McAvoy and James van Riemsdyk (31-9-9). For Boston, who won for the eighth time in eight games, Linus Ullmark made 35 saves.
It was each team’s last game before the NHL All-Star break. On February 6, Boston will play host to the Calgary Flames, and on the same day, Philadelphia will travel to the Florida Panthers.
“That’s what you want in that last game [before the NHL All-Star break],” Coyle stated. “You are aware of what lies ahead, but you nevertheless ensure that we maintain our focus, follow all the proper procedures, and form our positive habits. Having played well before a break makes you feel lot better. You get to enjoy your break a little more when you win in that way.”
Philadelphia (25-19-6) dropped its fifth straight game and has been outscored 27-12 in that time. Tyson Foerster scored twice for the team. At the beginning of the second period, Cal Petersen replaced Samuel Ersson and made 12 saves on 14 shots. On 14 shots, Ersson made 10 saves.
John Tortorella, the coach of the Flyers, stated, “We’ve lost ourselves a little bit here.” “Though I thought we produced some offense today, I believe we’ve lost offensive confidence. In the League, there are weeks when things go well and weeks when they don’t. We’re now facing some difficulties. All we need to do is attempt to focus and see if we can improve and address certain issues.”
In the first period, Pastrnak scored the first of four goals for the Bruins in a 4:14 stretch. At 14:09, he made it 1-0 with a shot from the right face-off circle.
“I was looking to give and go with ‘Pav’ (Pavel Zacha), but then I recognized I have a little bit more time,” Pastrnak stated. “I saw my [defenseman] and tried to go through his legs and definitely use the [defenseman] that was on me as a screen.”
At 15:46, McAvoy scored from the backdoor after pinching down on a ball from Zacha to give Boston a 2-0 lead.
At 16:47, Heinen made it 3-0 by tipping a Brandon Carlo shot.
At 18:23, Pastrnak scored a goal from close range to cap up the run and make the score 4-0.
“I actually thought the Flyers were significantly better than us the first 10 minutes of the game, and our big-time players made some big-time plays, including our goaltender, who was spectacular,” Jim Montgomery, the Bruins coach, said.
Playing in his first game back in Philadelphia since joining the Bruins on July 1, Van Riemsdyk scored at 1:15 of the second period to increase the advantage to 5-0. Pastrnak found van Riemsdyk in front after getting to a loose puck behind the Philadelphia net.
“He’s a game-breaker, right?” Montgomery stated of Pastrnak. “And he gives us an advantage that, in close games, we can win them.”
In a seven-game winning streak against the Flyers, Pastrnak has 17 points (11 goals, 6 assists), and in 29 games versus them, he has 42 points (26 goals, 16 assists). The forward claimed to have a unique bond with Philadelphia, the city where Boston selected him with the 25th overall choice in the 2014 NHL Draft.
“This is the beginning of my dream,” he remarked. “This is where everything started for me and was kind of my first step to the career that I’m having right now.”
Pastrnak has scored 70 points in less than 50 games for the second straight season with 72 points (33 goals, 39 assists). He joins Phil Esposito (six times), Bobby Orr (six times), Adam Oates (two times), and Bill Cowley (two times) as the five Bruins players to accomplish this feat.
At 14:45 of the third, Charlie Coyle completed the scoring and extended his point streak to eight games—four goals and twelve assists—the longest run he has had in his NHL career. Trent Frederic has points in five straight games (one goal, five assists), which is also a record for him in the NHL. He assisted on Coyle’s goal.
Derek Forbort, a defenseman, and Bruins forwards Jake DeBrusk and Matthew Poitras (both undisclosed) did not participate in the game. Montgomery claimed that DeBrusk is day-to-day but did not have a schedule for Forbort or Poitras.
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