Bruins’ scorers finally get going
Boston’s stars were going to be kept off the scoresheet in this playoff series for only so long.
David Pastrnak, Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand had combined for 260 points in the regular season but had been neutralized by the Columbus Blue Jackets through the first three games of their Eastern Conference semifinal series. The only point among them was a goal by Pastrnak in Game 2 that was a deflection off his skate.
All three top-liners contributed Thursday as the Bruins beat the host Blue Jackets 4-1 to even their Eastern Conference semifinal series at 2-2.
Bergeron had two goals, Pastrnak had a goal and an assist and Marchand picked up a helper for the Bruins.
“If you break down the chances we’ve had game to game, we are getting five, six opportunities every game,” said Marchand, who also was whistled for three penalties in Game 4. “It’s only a matter of time before these guys score goals. You give them that many opportunities every game, they are going to score. They are that good. There is no panic.”
Sean Kuraly also scored, and Tuukka Rask stopped 39 shots.
“I don’t think they got too many rebound opportunities,” Rask said. “That’s how they’ve been scoring. They were trying to play down low, pushing more pucks in there, but I thought we protected the house well, [I] saw every puck. That was huge.”
Artemi Panarin scored for Columbus on a blown call by the officials, and Sergei Bobrovsky, who has been spectacular in the postseason so far, had 41 saves but was beaten on long shots by Pastrnak and Bergeron in the first period.
“I don’t think any team wins without their best players being their best players,” Boston coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We can survive for a while. So far in this series we had.”
at Colorado 3, San Jose 0: Nathan MacKinnon kept up his scoring spree with a second-period goal, Philipp Grubauer stopped 32 shots for his first playoff shutout and Colorado evened the Western Conference semifinal series at two games apiece.
MacKinnon has at least a point in eight straight games. It’s the longest streak by an Avalanche player in the postseason since Peter Forsberg had a point in eight straight in 2002.
Colin Wilson gave Colorado a two-goal cushion with a power-play goal early in the third period.
Mikko Rantanen registered two assists and defenseman Erik Johnson added an empty-netter with 1:09 left.