The Boston Bruins scored two short-handed goals in their 4-0 win over the Vancouver Canucks Thursday night at TD Garden.

Two short-handed goals, a detailed defensive effort and a 17-save shutout from Linus Ullmark helped the Boston Bruins bounce back Thursday night at TD Garden as they bested the top-ranked Vancouver Canucks 4-0.

Coming off of Tuesday’s mistake-laden 4-1 loss to the Calgary Flames, the B’s needed a big response, and that they got.

“I was very impressed. We said that beforehand, that it wasn’t tolerable to do what we did last game. The guys really took it to heart, and we came out there flying,” Ullmark said.

The Bruins took three penalties in the first period, but were able to convert on two of them while skating down a man.

Brad Marchand gave his team a 1-0 lead 32 seconds into the first period with Jakub Lauko sitting in the box for holding. Charlie Coyle kept the puck in the offensive zone along the boards after a failed clear attempt from Canucks goaltender Thatcher Demko, and threw it over to a net-front Marchand, who lifted it in.

The play marked Marchand’s 35th career short-handed goal, tying him with Dick Graham and Theo Fleury for ninth-most in NHL history.

“His instincts are one of the best I’ve seen,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said of Marchand. “Just his ability to – we have structure in our PK – and then there’s certain players within the structure that can read plays and either create offense or kill plays and get the puck down the ice.”

Danton Heinen doubled the Bruins’ advantage on the breakaway after David Pastrnak was called for tripping. Heinen picked up the puck by the defensive blue line and blew past two Canucks en route to snapping it top-corner for the 2-0 score at 15:37. Coyle logged his second assist of the period on Heinen’s 10th goal of the season.

“In our minds, it’s a great way to start, but we still have to kill a penalty after that,” Coyle said. “They’re a good team, so you have to kind of come back down to earth and stay even keel in that situation…You play the right way, you do the right things, you get rewarded sometimes.”

The Bruins held the Canucks to four shots on goal in the opening frame before extending their two-goal lead into a four-goal lead within the first 49 seconds of the middle stanza.

Morgan Geekie netted his ninth of the season off a wonky play in which Pastrnak broke his stick on the initial shot from the point before it bounced off Geekie, the two Canucks and in at 0:34. Pavel Zacha made it 4-0 just 15 seconds later with his second goal in as many games. Zacha collected a pass from James van Riemsdyk off the rush and wristed it past Demko from the left side.

“I just cared about how tenacious and aggressive we were going to be mentally. Go out, try to force the issue, and I thought we did that,” Montgomery said.

Boston protected its 4-0 advantage for the entirety of the third period, and did not give the Canucks the opportunity to get back into the game. The Bruins, again, held Vancouver to four shots on goal while maintaining their pace until the final buzzer.

“I think that’s something that we’ve gotten better at as this year’s progressed is having the lead going into the third,” Coyle said. “It’s not trying to do anything out of the ordinary. Played a great two periods, so we just wanted to keep on that.”

The now 32-10-9 Bruins came into Thursday’s game with a chip on their shoulder – to prove that their first game out of the All-Star break was not representative of the team they are going to be in the second half of the season. The group will have the chance to build on its complete effort Saturday afternoon when the Washington Capitals come to town for a 3:30 p.m. puck drop.

“If you keep worrying about the process more than the results, the results are going to take care of themselves,” Ullmark said. “It shows a lot of maturity from the guys. It’s a confirmer, for us at least, that we know how good we are.” 

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