If the Bruins actually wish to be taken critically, they should show themselves to be a tougher out away from the Backyard.
However on Causeway Road, they’re about pretty much as good as anybody.
Of their final dwelling sport till Feb. 26, the Bruins beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 6-3, on Thursday to brush all 9 dwelling video games in January and enhance their dwelling report to 21-8-1.
Fraser Minten and Casey Mittelstadt led the way in which with three-point nights (1-2-3 totals every) and Jeremy Swayman made 33 saves.
The one blemish on the night time was the lack of Pavel Zacha to an upper-body damage, leaving the sport with 6:55 left within the second interval. His prognosis was not instantly identified.
The B’s will finish their pre-Olympic portion of the schedule with two robust highway video games, beginning with the Stadium Collection tilt towards the Tampa Bay Lightning at Raymond James Stadium on Sunday after which end up with a sport towards the surging defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers subsequent Wednesday.
The B’s took an early 2-0 lead towards the Flyers with two targets in 41 seconds halfway by means of the primary interval.
The Bruins had been already lacking No. 1 centerman Elias Lindholm (higher physique) and the absence was noticeable when the B’s received the primary energy play of the sport. The fourth-ranked PP seemed disjointed and the benefit glided by with out a lot as a scoring likelihood.
However the B’s ultimately received on the board on back-to-back shifts.
The primary one got here from the brand new second line with Minten taking Zacha’s spot between Viktor Arvidsson and Mittelstadt, which had been the B’s most fixed line. At 9:49, Arvidsson notched his thirteenth of the season when his one-timer off a Mittelstadt feed sneaked underneath goalie Samuel Ersson’s pads.
Then on the subsequent shift, Zacha notched his fifteenth of the 12 months when he took a fast feed from Morgan Geekie and went upstairs to beat Ersson, snapping a seven-game goal-less skid.
It appeared as if the Flyers had minimize their deficit shortly after that. Chistian Dvorak picked off a Jonathan Aspirot go within the impartial zone and the Flyers instantly went on the assault. Swayman stopped the clear break-in from Nikita Grebenkin however Dvorak scored on the rebound.
However after coach Marco Sturm’s challenged for goalie interference, it was dominated that Grebenkin, who had his stick in between Swayman’s glove arm and physique, impeded Swayman and the purpose got here off the board.
The B’s took a 3-0 lead at 2:27 of the second however then handed a purpose proper again.
First, Minten scored off the push, benefiting from an Ersson softy when his wrister slipped underneath the goalie’s pads as soon as once more for the rookie’s 14th purpose.
Lower than a minute later, nevertheless, Sean Kuraly served up a pizza to Travis Konecny on their own within the slot. He had time and house and he wasn’t going to overlook, beating Swayman underneath the glove.
At that time, the sport was up and down with nary a whistle. Philly began to spend extra time within the B’s zone whereas Ersson made a few good saves on the different finish to maintain the Flyers inside placing distance.
However the B’s new second line picked up their third purpose of the night time at 16:12. After some glorious strain, Ersson made a very good cease on Andrew Peeke on a backdoor play, however Mittelstadt swooped in to elevate a backhander into the highest shelf to make it 4-1. It was Mittelstadt’s eleventh of the season.
Simply 2:28 later, Tanner Jeannot made it 5-1 together with his sixth when he received in the way in which off a Peeke slapper and it beat Ersson.
Once more, the B’s gave one again earlier than the tip of the interval. Nikita Zadorov missed the online on a shot and it rimmed all the way in which round and out of the zone to provide Konecny a clear breakaway. Swayman stopped Konecny however Grebenkin adopted it up for the purpose with 55 seconds left within the interval.
The B’s cruised within the third interval till Marat Khusnutdinov (12) scored an empty-netter with 3:30 left earlier than Matvei Michkov scored a late PP purpose.
