Charlie McAvoy Two-Goal Night Helps Boston Bruins Get Overtime Win

The Boston Bruins closed out their four-game road trip with a 4-3 overtime win over the St. Louis Blues Saturday night.

Charlie McAvoy picked up the puck at center ice and dashed into the offensive zone on a 2-on-1 with David Pastrnak before sniping it top-left corner and in.

At long last, the Boston Bruins secured two points in their 4-3 overtime win against the St. Louis Blues Saturday night after losing their past three contests in extra time.

McAvoy’s game-winning goal at 1:10 delivered the B’s first win of the now-concluded four-game road trip in which Boston collected five out of the eight points up for grabs.

“Five out of eight points – it sounds good. Points in every game, it sounds good. But it was kind of disheartening the way we were losing these games three overtimes in a row,” McAvoy told reporters Saturday following the victory.

“You go into overtime again tonight – blow a lead – but it all worked out. Feels good right now, and excited to end the trip with a win.”

Before his overtime heroics, McAvoy gave the Bruins a 2-1 lead at 6:26 of the second period with a wrister from the slot. Saturday marked the defenseman’s first multi-goal game since Nov. 14, 2021, and displayed the offensive flair that the coaching staff has been wanting him to lean on more this season.

“Great talent and great shot. That’s a goal-scorer’s shot there. That’s why we try to get him to shoot more,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery told reporters Saturday.

“Both of his goals – when he’s in a shot mode, he can score. We need more goals from our defensemen, but in particular, he’s the one that needs to lead the group.”

McAvoy’s 28 points (six goals, 22 assists) through 34 games leads all Bruins defensemen.

Coming off of overtime losses to the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday, the Arizona Coyotes on Tuesday and falling in a shootout to the Colorado Avalanche on Monday, it seemed something had to give as regulation time ran out against the Blues.

“I thought we were more aggressive on the 3-on-3, and I really liked our last two periods offensively and defensively,” Montgomery said.

McAvoy was out there for the five-minute, 3-on-3 period with Pastrnak and Jake DeBrusk. While Pastrnak did trip up St. Louis forward Robert Thomas in the neutral zone without getting called prior to the goal, Boston will take the win and pretty finish from McAvoy home.

“It was just strategy wise what we were going to do in overtime – we changed our strategy a little bit,” McAvoy said of the talk on the bench after the third period. “I don’t want to say that that was the reason that we won – it was kind of a quick, bang-bang play – but that was what we were talking about.”

The Bruins will return to TD Garden Monday for a 1 p.m. matinee matchup against the New Jersey Devils – the first of Boston’s upcoming five-game homestand.