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The opening minutes of play in Thursday’s head-to-head between the Boston Bruins and visiting Columbus Blue Jackets featured everything that the B’s wanted to avoid against a Blue Jackets group that came to the Hub for their second game in as many nights. The Bruins were consistently beat on puck battles, committed lackadaisical turnovers, did not have their skating, and were in an 0-1 hole behind Nick Foligno’s goal, off a Zdeno Chara turnover, 2:29 in the game.
Then, a light went off, and the Black and Gold remember that they had to shoot the puck, something they did 43 times in a losing effort to the Montreal Canadiens the game before, to win a game.
And it was in a 4:01 stretch that the Bruins hammered Columbus netminder Sergei Bobrovsky for four goals on eight shots against, and ultimately chased the veteran Russian en route to a 5-2 final for the B’s on Garden ice, good for their first home winning streak since Mar. 2016.
It began with Torey Krug’s first goal of the season -- scored on his 46th shot of the season -- that tied the B’s and Jackets up 1-1. Then Matt Beleskey came through with his first of the season, scored 1:08 after the Krug goal, on a great sequence from the B’s third line. Austin Czarnik came through with a goal 2:29 after Beleskey’s, and then Tim Schaller scored 24 seconds after that.
In the blink of an eye, the Bruins blew the Jackets out of the water.
“They scored that goal and it was important for us to stay calm I guess and focused,… B’s coach Claude Julien said. “We did have a slow start but we seemed to find our legs there after five or six minutes and then the game got a little bit better and we scored that goal and that kind of I guess took all the pressure off of us and gave us the confidence to move forward here.…
The B’s added a fifth goal in the second period, scored by David Backes, his first since opening night, and would add a sixth goal -- just on the wrong net -- when Colin Miller put the puck in his own net.
“I think we’ve played solid five-on-five hockey,… B’s goaltender Tuukka Rask, who stopped 16-of-18 in the win, said of their success. “Pretty much throughout the season, at least the games I’ve played, we’ve been solid defensively and for the most part, we’ve attacked as a five-man unit. Our special teams have gotten better and pretty much the whole package has improved so that’s a great thing.…
Random thoughts and notes
- Can the Bruins play the Blue Jackets every night? Of the 37 goals scored by the B’s this year, 11 have come against the Blue Jackets. The Bruins also remain the only team that Bobrovsky, who has now skated in seven career games against the team, has yet to beat in his NHL career.
- A positive to take from this one? The way that the Bruins kept the Jackets’ vaunted special teams off the board. Against the league’s best power play, the Bruins killed all three penalties against. I thought it was an especially strong PK game from Austin Czarnik -- especially given his inexperience at killing penalties at this level -- and the way that the team kept most of the Jackets’ chances to the outside.
- Nine points in three games for the Beleskey-Nash-Czarnik line. You’ll take that.
- Bruins goaltender Anton Khudobin will join the Bruins for this upcoming three-game road trip. Khudobin, injured in practice on Oct. 24, rejoined the group this week on the ice, but was skating without a stick, so it’s unknown just how much he’ll participate if at all on the trip. Defenseman Kevan Miller, out with a fractured left hand, is not expected to join the team for the trip.
Up next
The Bruins will head to Arizona for a Saturday night head-to-head with the Coyotes. It will be the first head-to-head between the B’s and ‘Yotes this season, and marks the start of a three-game road trip for the Bruins with stops in Arizona, Colorado, and Minnesota. The B’s are 5-3-0 on the road this year.
Ty Anderson has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010 and has been a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter since 2013. Ty is also the Boston Bruins beat writer for WEEI.com and can also be found in the New England Hockey Journal. Contact him on Twitter or send him an email at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.