Even with their injuries and fatigue going into Thursday’s game, the Colorado Avalanche still have one of the league’s deepest rosters.
Last Monday in Denver, the Bruins experienced that firsthand as they overcame a sluggish start and an injury to Brandon Carlo to salvage a point from a 4-3 shootout loss.
The Bruins earned that much-needed start in the rematch. And even though Jim Montgomery’s team lost in the middle period, they recovered with one of the season’s best shutout performances in the third.
Just 44 seconds in, David Pastrnak scored Boston’s first goal of the game, his 27th of the year, after Charlie Coyle had preserved possession with a smart stick check on Cale Makar.
Jakub Lauko notched his first goal of the year on a wide-open net on the doorstep.
Shortly after Colorado’s first power-play effort expired, Miles Wood followed up on his own rebound on an early mini-breakaway to cut the Boston lead in half.
The Bruins failed to slow down Colorado’s speed, which resulted in multiple high-danger opportunities against them and prevented them from building on their two-goal advantage in the second. At 16:20 of the middle session, Nathan MacKinnon buried a stray puck hanging behind Jeremy Swayman, and eventually the Avalanche drew within one again.
The second period was slow, but the Bruins kept their best 20 minutes for last.
The Avs team, which was playing its third game in four nights, was limited to only four shots on goal by the Bruins’ MacKinnon, Makar, and colleagues. In order to complete his 16th career regular-season hat trick, Pastrnak was able to score two insurance goals behind Jeremy Swayman’s stiffened defensive structure.