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The Boston Bruins have long talked about their need to improve at home. But with two wins in nine games at TD Garden this year, everybody from their coach to the fourth-liners seemed well beyond the point of talking about what needed to change. They wanted -- or needed, rather -- to see it.
And with a complete effort against a strong Minnesota Wild club in a 4-2 win on Thursday night, the B’s can’t help but feel as if they are trending up. Even if it’s just by a little bit. At this point, they’ll take it.
“I think all the things we talked about were better,” B’s head coach
Claude Julien said. “We know we can score goals. I think it’s about keeping them out of our own net, and our penalty kill was good tonight, and our defensive play was good as well. We did a good job of collapsing and taking away some of those opportunities, and our Ds did a great job of blocking shots when they had to.”
The Bruins’ night began with penalties to
Jimmy Hayes and
Brad Marchand (along with Minnesota’s Nate Prosser) just :57 seconds into the game, and put the club’s league-worst penalty-kill to the test. It would have been the perfect moment for the Bruins to crack and let the Wild open up a shooting gallery on B’s netminder
Jonas Gustavsson’s first home start of the year.
But the Boston penalty-kill stood tall, limited the Wild’s chances in the attacking zone, and responded at the 5:30 mark of the period behind a wraparound goal from Marchand. The goal, Marchand’s second in as many games, came following a failed clear attempt from
Matthew Dumba that ultimately put the puck on
Brett Connolly’s blade. And when Connolly’s shot went wide, No. 63 was there to take the puck behind the net with speed and bury the goal on his swing around the net.
Undoubtedly the start that the Black and Gold needed on home ice,
Matt Beleskey engaged in a beatdown of the Wild’s
Brett Bulmer four seconds later, and it appeared that the B’s were off to the races. They survived the penalty-kill, scored with a response, hit everything that moved, and even won the fight (decidedly, may I add) when Minnesota looked for a momentum-changer.
The B’s, questioned by their coach and leaders alike following Tuesday’s loss, had snarl.
“We all want to be better than last game and bring that compete up in front of the fans,” said Beleskey. “We’ve got to get some wins here. If I could help by doing that, that’s what I was trying to do.”
The Wild tied things up early in the first behind
Jason Zucker’s sixth of the season, but the Bruins regained the lead just 2:25 later behind
Loui Eriksson’s shot that banked off
Jason Pominville’s skate and through
Devan Dubnyk for Eriksson’s seventh of the year.
It was just the start of the Loui party.
On their third power-play opportunity of the period, Eriksson parked himself in the front of the net, and banged home a Patrice Bergeron look for his second of the game, and a two-goal Boston edge.
Minnesota moved back within one on a
Jordan Schroeder tip-in that beat a screened Gustavsson, and moved the Wild closer to striking distance through 40 minutes of play.
But Eriksson, with the Bruins looking to feed him for a third time, put the nail in Minny’s coffin with an absolute snipe off a beautiful feed from David Krejci, good for his third goal of the game and a 4-2 lead.
“Loui’s been good since the beginning of the year, as [have] a lot of guys, and I think we’ve got a lot of guys that are playing good hockey. Our record maybe doesn’t show it as much, but they’ve been playing well,” Julien said. “Loui’s one of those guys, and as much as he scored three goals and we can all look at that, it was a great accomplishment, he also was good in the other areas, the penalty kill, and our D-zone. He was one of those guys that had his stick in the right places, taking away some of their slot opportunities that they excel in, and he was really on top of his game. So, not only does he deserve to be the best player tonight because of those three goals, but because of the rest of the game as well.”
The hat trick, the third of Eriksson’s career (first in Boston) and his first since Dec. 31, 2009, was a deserved reward for a player that the Black and Gold have come to rely on in all areas of the game.
“I think people are starting to realize that he may not score 40, 50 goals, but he did score three tonight, and he is a great player in all situations,” Julien noted. “When a coach has players that he trusts, that he can put on at the end of the game, he’s always one of those guys that’s on the list.
“That says a lot about his game.”
The Bruins finished the night a perfect 3-for-3 on the PK, including a huge kill late, while Gustavsson stopped 24-of-26 shots against on the way to his fourth win of the season.
NOTES: Bruins center Patrice Bergeron (one assist) extended his point streak to six games (3-4-7 totals)... The Bruins went 1-for-4 on the power play tonight and are now 20-for-58 on the year (34.5%), the best in the NHL... Eriksson's hat trick was the first hat trick by a Bruin since David Krejci's hat trick against the Florida Panthers on Mar. 4, 2014... Bruins rookie forward Frank Vatrano left the game in the second period with an upper-body injury.
Up next
The Bruins conclude their five-game homestand with a Saturday night visit from the Toronto Maple Leafs. Although they remain in the basement of the Atlantic, the Leafs come to the Hub with wins in five of their last ten (and 12 of a possible 20 points over that stretch) and riding the hot goaltending of
James Reimer. This will be the club’s first head-to-head against the Maple Leafs since
Mike Babcock took over behind the Toronto bench after nearly a decade with the Detroit Red Wings.
Ty Anderson has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, has been a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter since 2013, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • 
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