David Pastrnak scored a power-play goal early in the third period to break a tie and lead the Boston Bruins to a 3-2 victory over the visiting Winnipeg Jets on Saturday afternoon.
It was Pastrnak’s 19th goal of the season and an NHL-leading 11th for the month of January. Charlie Coyle had a goal and an assist and Oskar Steen also scored for Boston, which won for the 10th time in the last 12 games. Tuukka Rask, making just his third start of the season after undergoing hip surgery in July, finished with 22 saves.
Jansen Harkins and Andrew Copp scored goals for Winnipeg while Connor Hellebuyck made 29 saves.
Winnipeg took a 1-0 lead on its first shot on goal of the game when Harkins took a drop pass from Dominic Toninato in the left circle and fired a wrist shot under Rask’s left arm for his fourth goal of the season. It was the sixth goal allowed by Rask over a 13-shot span dating back to a 7-1 loss to Carolina on Tuesday when Rask was pulled after allowing five goals on 12 shots in the first period.
Boston tied it at the 11:37 mark on Steen’s spinning rebound shot from the slot of a Coyle shot for his second goal of the season.
The Jets regained the lead at 2-1 with just 26 seconds left in the period on Copp’s 11th goal of the season. The score came on a double-deflection of a Mark Scheifele’s shot from the left point which first hit Copp’s skate and then the skate of Bruins defenseman Urho Vaakanainen and went inside the far post.
The Bruins tied it early in the second period when Coyle redirected Derek Forbort’s shot from the left point past Hellebuyck’s blocker side for his ninth goal of the season.
Pastrnak then gave Boston its first lead of the game at the 3:59 mark of the third period with a power play goal, one-timing a Matt Grzelcyk pass from the left circle past Hellebuyck’s glove side.
Winnipeg had a good chance to tie it when Tomas Nosek was penalized for high-sticking and Hellebuyck was pulled for an extra attacker for a six-on-four power play with 1:27 remaining. But the Jets managed just two shots on goal, the best of which was a Kyle Connor sharp-angle try from the right side of the goal that Rask stopped with two seconds to go.
–Field Level Media