BRISTOL, Mass. (AP) – The Boston Bruins kept their season’s latest record-breaking performance for their home audience.
The Bruins shattered the NHL points record with a 5-2 victory over the Washington Capitals on Tuesday night in their regular-season home finale. Brad Marchand and Tyler Bertuzzi scored on the power play.
The Bruins won their seventh straight game under chants of “We want the Cup!” from supporters inside TD Garden, increasing their point total to 133, one more than the 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens. Those Canadiens played in a time when there was no overtime or shootouts. The Bruins had 11 extra points — five for shootout victories and six for overtime victories — that the Canadiens did not have when they set the record.
“Don’t get me wrong: we’re overjoyed. “However, it’s a regular-season record,” Marchand explained. “The playoffs begin, and everything begins again.” There will be 16 teams working toward the same goal, and what we’ve accomplished thus far has no influence on that.”
The Bruins surpassed the NHL victory record with 63 on Sunday in Philadelphia, breaking a tie with the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings and the 2018-19 Tampa Bay Lightning.
“I think (Montreal’s) wins in 80 games is a little more significant,” said Bruins coach Jim Montgomery. However, he emphasized that it is still significant “because those were dominant hockey teams.”
Boston’s other scorers on Tuesday night were Tomas Nosek, Garnet Hathaway, and Jake DeBrusk.
A night after becoming the first player in NHL history to achieve 60 goals in a season, David Pastrnak recorded his 50th and 51st assists. Linus Ullmark ended with 19 saves before leaving the game with little over nine minutes remaining due to what Montgomery described as “muscle tightening.” Marchand and Patrice Bergeron each had an assist.
The Bruins will have home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs as they seek their first Stanley Cup championship since 2011.
The Capitals’ goals came from Nick Jensen and Tom Wilson. Charlie Lindgren made 33 saves, including a gloveless one-handed save on Pastrnak early in the third session.
Wilson trimmed a two-goal lead to 3-2 in the third period before Nosek found Hathaway cutting toward the net for his 13th goal.
With 12:24 remaining in the second period, Matt Irwin was penalised for a cross-check on Taylor Hall, giving the Bruins their first power play of the game.
Less than a minute later, Pastrnak collected a feed from Patrice Bergeron, drew some defenders in the middle of the ice, and flipped it to the bottom of the right faceoff circle to Marchand, who finished off his 21st goal of the season. It was his first goal in 17 games, having previously scored in a March 9 loss to Edmonton.
“You almost have to laugh about it,” Marchand commented. “It’s one of those things that gets frustrating at first, but then it just becomes laughable.” You can’t take it too seriously, and I believe that’s where it ended up. It’s not the norm, and I’m aware of it.”
Boston went back on offense after Tom Wilson was called for roughing Charlie McAvoy with little under seven minutes remaining in the period.
Bertuzzi found himself in an ideal position to rebound Pastrnak’s attempt and score his eighth goal of the season, putting the Bruins up 2-0.
Jensen cut the deficit to one goal with 4:53 remaining in the period, when his wrist shot looked to clip McAvoy and trickle through Ullmark for Jensen’s fifth goal of the season.
BOWMAN WEIGHTS
On Tuesday, Tampa Bay hosted Toronto, and Hall of Fame coach Scotty Bowman was in attendance.
Montgomery’s friend and coach for the previous record-setting seasons by Montreal and Detroit, the 89-year-old stated he doesn’t mind if those records are broken.
“We still have part of the record, we got 132 points in 80 games, I keep telling him,” Bowman smiled. “I’m not bothered. I’m happy for him since he made an excellent comeback. He is self-assured. They have a strong team.
I’m old enough to understand that I don’t need all of my documents, and if he can get them, I’m delighted for him.”
NOTES: This was only Boston’s second game this season with two power play goals. It also had two in a 7-3 victory over Florida on December 19…. Jensen of Washington has now scored in a career-high five games. Henrik Borgstrom was recalled from the AHL Hershey Bears on Tuesday, becoming the Capitals’ first Finnish player in 14 years.
Source: spectrumlocalnews.com
