Brad Marchand scored his 400th career goal, and the Boston Bruins didn’t waste any time blowing past the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday.
The Boston Bruins got out to a fast start on Thursday, scoring three times in the first 11 minutes and never looking back in a 4-1 win against the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena.
After contributing two of Boston’s three goals in Tuesday’s 3-0 win against the Nashville Predators, the Danton Heinen-Pavel Zacha-David Pastrnak line combined for two more on Thursday. Pastrnak and Heinen each had a goal and an assist, and Zacha had two assists for Boston, which improved to 45-17-15. Jeremy Swayman made 27 saves.
“Our first period, we executed really well," Bruins coach Jim Montgomery told reporters in Raleigh. "Caught them on some odd-man rushes and made some high-end plays led by our captain (Brad Marchand) and then our leading goal-scorer (Pastrnak).”
Marchand opened the scoring with a milestone marker at 2:12, collecting Morgan Geekie’s pass behind the defense and backhanding it past Frederik Andersen to reach 400 career goals. It snapped a 10-game drought for the Bruins captain, who became the fifth player in franchise history to hit the mark.
“Obviously it was kind of an elephant in the room," Marchand told reporters in Raleigh. "Nice to get it. I don’t have to worry about it anymore. But it’s nice that we had a really good game to follow it up and big road trip so it’s a good night.”
Pastrnak doubled the lead at 7:42, showcasing incredible stick-handling to skate in and roof it over Andersen.
Heinen pushed it to 3-0 at 10:46, winning the offensive zone board battle to retain possession before Pastrnak found him on a cross-ice pass for a one-timer.
Jake Guentzel cut it to 3-1 with a 5-on-3 power-play goal at 15:12 of the second, banking it off Swayman and in from the right side.
Holding the lead into the third, the Bruins kept pace with the Hurricanes as they fought to get back in. Hampus Lindholm extended it to 4-1 at 17:49 of the third with an empty-net goal from left outer edge of the defensive zone.
Even though it went 0-for-4 on the power play, Boston generated all the offense it needed to win its third straight game.
“I thought we had great legs all night," Montgomery told reporters on Thursday. "Even in the third period, I thought that was a great checking period by us.”
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