*Photo from MassLive*
The beat is cruising along on Causeway Street right now. Patrice Bergeron scored, Brad Marchand added a goal of his own, and the Boston Bruins defeated the Vancouver Canucks with a 5-2 victory on Sunday night in Boston.
Bergeron picked up his 3rd goal in two days and Marchand scored his 5th in 8 games to pace the Bruins, who saw 5 different skaters find the back of the net. The win goes down as the 4th in a row and 11th of 12, improving to 14-2-0 to lead the NHL. Defenseman Hampus Lindholm added 3 assists.
Lindholm said of the hot start that "We've got good pieces here, but it's going to be a long year. Like I said, I'm prouder of the group for that process there from Buffalo. Like this learning, adapting, that's how this season's going to be. It's going to be a lot of hurdles, and we just have to keep going that direction."
The first goal of the game came from Boston's Connor Clifton, who gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead with his second goal of the year. On the power play 9:05 into the game, JT Miller scored for the Canucks to tie the game 1-1. With the Bruins on a power play of their own later, Bergeron redirected one to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead after one period.
Over halfway through the second period, Pavel Zacha extended the Bruins lead, making it 3-1 on his 3rd goal of the season, coming 11:19 into the second, assisted by Clifton and Lindholm. On the power play at the 17:23 mark of the second, Marchand scored his 5th goal of the season to give the Bruins a 4-1 lead.
In the early stages of the 3rd period, Sheldon Dries scored a power play goal to cut into the Bruins lead, trimming the deficit to 4-2 with an unassisted goal 4:34 into the period. While shorthanded and on an empty net, Tomas Nosek scored to make it 5-2 Bruins, snapping a goal drought that had lasted since January.
Nosek said of snapping his goal drought that "I know it's not my main job to score goals, but you want to produce, too. It was sometimes frustrating, but I've always said before I just try to keep my head in the game and focusing on my game. And now it's over, and I'm glad it's over."
Drawing the start on the second end of a back to back was Linus Ullmark for the Bruins. Ullmark got the win to improve his record to 11-1-0 to open the season. He saved 29 of the 31 shots the Canucks sent towards him, recording a .935 save percentage.
Starting for the Canucks was Thatcher Demko, who got the loss as his record dropped to 1-8-2 in a rough start to the season. Demko stopped 29 of the 33 shots the Bruins had, which was good for a .879 save percentage.
Vancouver head coach Bruce Boudreau said of the loss that "I didn't think we played too bad, honest to goodness. I know that it's a 4-2 game basically, but we worked our butts off, especially in the third period where we never quit, which is a really good sign, but it's not good enough."
Up next, the Canucks resume play on Tuesday night with a road showdown against the Buffalo Sabres, with Demko the probable starter. Ullmark is the likely starter for the Bruins when they face the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday.
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