Bruins Beat: Bruins Strong Play Continues

Some nights they’ve been able to do it with offense, on Tuesday night they were able to do it with defense – that is your 2022-23 Boston Bruins. Is this a good thing you ask? The answer is resounding yes, as the Bruins have now compiled six wins in the first seven contests of the regular season. For Boston’s third straight win over the Dallas Stars’ on Tuesday, it took a village…with Linus Ullmark contributing a stellar 30-save win, his third consecutive start, resulting in Boston’s third straight win. For Ullmark, who is now 5-0-0 for the young season, his impressive credentials include a solid 2.01 goals against average, and a stunning save percentage of .936.

The Bs offense was ignited by, no surprise, David Pastrnak, as number 88 deposited one of his trademark one-timers behind former Boston University goaltender, Jake Oettinger tending net for the Stars. Pastrnak’s power play blast came at 12:48 of the first period, thanks to a well-placed pass from Bs defenseman Hampus Lindholm, giving the Bruins a quick 1-0 lead. The red-hot Pasta has now scored five goals in seven games. Offsetting a quick Dallas goal to open the second period to tie the score at 1-1, Taylor Hall, another streaking player made sure Boston ended the second period by duplicating Pastrnak’s one-timer, with one of his own to put Boston up 2-1 at the end of two periods with an even-strength goal. For Hall, his fourth goal of the season was the eventual game-winner, his third straight game with a goal, and his third game-winning goal. It took a strong defensive third period by Boston to maintain their one-goal lead, as the Stars kept aligning with great scoring chances, only to be stone-walled by Ullmark. The captain, Patrice Bergeron, put the lock on the door with 27 seconds left in the game, scoring an empty-net goal from center ice, his fourth goal of the young season to produce a 3-1 victory.

A welcome sign to see was the return of Bruins defenseman Brandon Carlo, to the Boston lineup after missing four games after suffering his fifth concussion. Carlo was able to contribute close to 19-minutes to the Boston defense, helping to take some of the workload off of the heavily worked blue liners, still missing the efforts of Charlie McAvoy. The contest also featured more Connor Clifton strong play, as Cliffy-hockey was in full view throughout the game. In the postgame conference Montgomery praised Carlo, stating “We’ve been able to have success without Carlo and [Matt] Grzelcyk, and McAvoy is still going to be out for a while, but it’s nice to know that we have players coming back, which makes us better.”

Tonight’s (Thursday) game will have the Bruins taking on the Detroit Red Wings (7:00pm) as they end their lengthy home stand, followed by a four-game road trip with stops in Columbus to take on the Blue Jackets on Friday (7:00pm), along with visits to Pittsburgh and a matchup with the Penguins on Tuesday (8:00pm), and the New York Rangers on Thursday (7:30pm), finishing the trip with the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday at 7:00pm.

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