*Photo from MassLive*
The Boston Bruins needed a win to keep pace in the East Division playoff race. What a good time to beat the New York Islanders for the first time this season. Brad Marchand scored two goals, Taylor Hall scored his first goal with the Bruins, and the Bruins toppled the Islanders with a 4-1 win Thursday night.
Marchand started the scoring for the Bruins, giving them a 1-0 lead just 1:49 into the game with his 20th goal of the season. With 2:05 left in the first period, Craig Smith scored on the power play to extend the lead to 2-0. In the second, Travis Zajac scored his first goal with the Islanders to cut the deficit to 2-1. In the 3rd period, Hall scored his first with the Bruins on a breakaway goal, and Marchand scored on the empty net to seal the win.
Hall said of scoring his first goal with the Bruins in his second game with them that "I mean you always want to contribute. As an offensive guy, you don't come into every game hoping to score a goal, but you want to make plays, you want to create chances, and I thought tonight our line did that. So it was nice to see one go in."
Rask returned from an upper body injury, getting the win in his first start since March 25, which he had to leave after one period due to his back hurting. The win also gave Rask the 300th in his career, stopping 22 of 23 shots en route to win number 300. Rask improved to 9-4-2 this season, with the Bruins holding on to 4th in the East, with a 23-12-6 record.
Rask said of winning 300 games that "Well I think I've been fortunate enough to play on a really good team throughout my career, so that helps a lot. We've had some great defenses throughout the years and I'm just happy to be part of that. Super grateful that I've been able to play so many years. But it's a great milestone. It's one of those that once you're done playing hockey and years after that, you think about your career and what you accomplished and it's probably going to be a nice memory."
On the other side of things, Semyon Varlamov got the loss for the Islanders in net, facing a heavy workload in this one, stopping 41 of 44 shots during the game. Varlamov's record drops to 16-9-3 this season, while the Islanders have a 27-12-4 record, second place in the East Division.
Islanders center Matt Barzal said of the loss that "They came out hard. That's really it. They came out flying. It's a big game. It was a big game for them. They're fighting for a spot, we're fighting for the top of the division right now. It's two good teams going at it and their compete level was higher than ours tonight."
The Bruins and Islanders finish up a back to back tonight, with two rookies in net. Ilya Sorokin starts for the Islanders, and Jeremy Swayman starts for the Bruins.
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