The Bruins cruised to a 6-3 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Monday, January 20th, handing the Sharks their third consecutive loss at TD Garden. Charlie Coyle fueled the victory with a pair of goals, while Matt Poitras contributed two excellent assists, helping the Bruins secure the win in a brilliant performance. Will Smith found the back of the net for his seventh goal of the season, also picking up an assist for San Jose. Vinni Lettieri, David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand, and Elias Lindholm also all scored for Boston. Barclay Goodrow and Fabian Zetterlund scored the other two goals for the Sharks. The Bruins will head to New Jersey on Wednesday to take on the Devils, and the Sharks will go to Nashville on Tuesday for the last game of their five-game road trip before facing the Predators again on Thursday at home.
Boston Bruins Lineup:
Marchand – Poitras – Coyle
Geekie – Zacha – Pastrnak
Wahlstrom – Lindholm – Lettieri
Brazeau – Beecher – Kastelic
Wotherspoon – Carlo
Zadorov – Peeke
Lohrei – Oesterle
Korpisalo
Swayman
San Jose Sharks Lineup:
Zetterlund – Granlund – Smith
Eklund – Celebrini – Wennberg
Grundstrum – Kunin – Graf
Goodrow – Sturm – Dellandrea
Thrun – Ceci
Walman – Rutta
Ferraro – Liljegren
Askarov
Georgiev
Vinni Lettieri opened the scoring, putting the Boston Bruins ahead 1-0. This was his second goal of the season; his first came against the Ottawa Senators on January 18th. Lettieri got the puck past Yaroslav Askarov on a redirection of a shot from the right point by Jordan Oesterle at 10:39 of the first period. After the Bruins got the puck out of their zone, attempting to keep it in the Sharks’ zone, Cody Ceci fired it from the top of the left circle, it got shot out of the neutral zone quickly, getting to the end boards where Nico Sturm outraced Andrew Peeke, collected the puck, and spun around to pass it off to Barclay Goodrow, who beat Joonas Korpisalo with a shot from the high slot to the high blocker.
Putting Boston back in front for their second lead of the game at 12:58 of the second, David Pastrnak recorded his 22nd goal of the season when his shot ricochetted off Jake Walman’s skate, finding its way past Yaroslav Askarov. Pavel Zacha passed the puck to Brad Marchand after the puck was sent out of Boston’s zone, and Marchand sent it over to Elias Lindholm, who gave it back to Zacha. Pastrnak came up on the right side as Zacha was going around behind the net, passing it to Pastrnak for the second Bruins tally. Will Smith tied it back up 2-2 not long after Pastrnak’s goal with 11:08 on the clock when he beat Joonas Korpisalo to the short side at the right face-off circle after intercepting a pass in the neutral zone, then connecting with Mikael Granlund on a give-and-go. With 4:42 remaining in the middle frame, Fabian Zetterlund put the Sharks in the lead 3-2 for their first lead of the game. He scored on his own rebound just moments after killing a penalty, and Smith picked up the assist.
Before the midway point in the final frame, Charlie Coyle tied it up to end a 10-game goal drought at 11:38 when he put a one-timer past Yaroslav Askarov from the edge of the right circle off a pass from Matt Poitras, who received the puck from Brad Marchand, who was along the right boards. Mason Lohrei carried the puck out of Boston’s zone, who passed it off to Poitras, and Poitras sent it over to Coyle, who was in the right circle, skating up and attempting to feed from near the goal post, hitting a skate in the crease, trickling past Askarov. Marchand struck the Sharks’ empty net for the fifth Bruins goal at 1:15, then Elias Lindholm scored an empty-net goal with just 25 seconds remaining for the 6-3 final.
David Pastrnak on the Bruins’ win, Joonas Korpisalo, secondary scoring, Charlie Coyle, and moving forward: “We stayed focused and kept pushing. We got a big kill, we got some huge saves from Korpi that kept us in the game, and we were determined to win the game. …Obviously, it’s nice, but that doesn’t change anything for me. I just focus on doing my job. Coyle there obviously came up big for us today – tied the game and got the go-ahead goal. So, a heck of a game, a big win for our group, and got good support from the fans. …We have to keep focusing every game, it’s going to be important for us moving forward.”
Will Smith on playing at TD Garden, his game, if he thought this game was one of his better ones this season, and what happened in the third period: “It was pretty amazing. I mean, I’ve come to plenty of games here, so it was a dream come true. …I want to be ready to go. I have a lot of people in the building and this game is for all of them too. I wouldn’t have been here without them,” – “I thought it was one of my better games, but we have to close it out and get these W’s. …They were kind of all over us. Honestly, I think we were just trying to survive instead of trying to win, and we have to get that out of our system.”
Game Notes:
– Joonas Korpisalo made a total of 25 saves for Boston.
– Matt Poitras gathered a pair of assists, David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand both recorded a goal and an assist. …With his goal, Pastrnak has five goals in his past four games. In those four games, he has a total of 11 points; five goals, six assists. …Marchand was plus-4 in 18:40 of ice time.
– Charlie Coyle had a three-point game; two goals and one assist.
– 12 players for the Bruins recorded one or more points.
– The Bruins are 3-0-1 in their past four games.
– BOS: 23-19-6, SJ: 14-29-6
– Yaroslav Askarov made a total of 27 saves for San Jose.
– Will Smith had a two-point game; one goal and one assist.
– Macklin Celebrini won 12 of 17 face-offs and also had four shots on goal in 19:00.
– The Sharks have lost three straight, and six of seven.
– Dating back to February 9th, 2017, the Bruins have won 14 games straight against the Sharks. San Jose has not won once here since the 27th of November, 2015.
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