Pastrnak, Ullmark lead Bruins past Wild
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ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — David Pastrnak scored his 47th goal of the season and Linus Ullmark made 29 saves as the Boston Bruins beat the Minnesota Wild 5-2 on Saturday.
Jake DeBrusk, David Krejci, Patrice Bergeron and Trent Frederic also scored for Boston, which has won two in a row as it seeks to surpass the record 62 wins and 132 points in a season.
Pastrnak has six goals and seven assists in his past eight games and is second in the league in goals behind Connor McDavid, who started the day with 57.
“I thought we went after them as good as we’ve gone for a 60-minute game,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said. “It was good to try and have a mentality where we have an opportunity to end someone’s streak. Instead of being the hunted, we were hunting.”
Minnesota, which started the day one point behind Dallas for first and two points ahead of Colorado in the Central Division, hadn’t lost in regulation since Feb. 15 against the Avalanche. The Wild were 11-0-3 in a franchise-record, 14-game point streak.
Marcus Johansson and Oskar Sundqvist, both acquired by Minnesota at the trade deadline, scored goals. Filip Gustavsson stopped 34 shots in goal for the Wild.
“Obviously, they’ve been the best team in the league the whole year and we proved we can play with them,” Johansson said. “A tough few breaks. That’s the way it goes. We played a good game and we’ve got to learn from it and move on."
Johansson, who was acquired from Washington for a third-round draft pick, opened the scoring against the East leaders midway through the first.
Minnesota appeared to take a 2-0 lead, but a goal by Matt Dumba was waived off after a review for offsides.
The Wild had two apparent scores taken away by offsides reviews in the game. Connor Dewar was clearly offside on the Dumba goal and Matt Boldy was declared offside after he passed the puck entering the zone and appeared to cross the line before the puck.
“They’re both off-sides, so there’s nothing to complain about,” Minnesota coach Dean Evason said. “Couple of bad breaks, obviously a third goes off our stick and goes into the net. Those are three goals right there, we’re in this hockey game."
DeBrusk then tied the game before the first intermission with his 21st goal of the season. Pastrnak and Krejci scored in the second period. It was Krejci’s first goal in 11 games.
The Bruins (52-11-5) had lost three of four before winning the past two games. They’re looking to surpass the NHL-record 62 wins by the 1995-96 Red Wings and 2018-19 Lightning. They also have a chance to surpass the record 132 points amassed by the 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens.
“Usually when we play tough teams and teams who’ve been doing well, we get to our game right away because we know we have to,” Boston forward Charlie Coyle said of stopping the Wild’s point streak. “So, usually our start is on. Whether we score the first goal or not, we just stay at it. We do the right things. We play simple and you see when we do that, we kind of take over.”
Sundqvist scored for the second-straight game in the third on the power play. He has two goals in six games for Minnesota since being acquired for a fourth-round draft pick.
Boston entered the game with the best penalty kill in the league, killing 85.7% of their shorthanded situations.
Bergeron answered with his 25th goal of the season and Frederic tallied an empty-net goal.
QUITE A PAIR
Bergeron and Brad Marchand assisted on DeBrusk’s goal in the second, the 407th time in their careers they’ve combined on a goal. It set a new franchise record, surpassing the total of Phil Esposito and Ken Hodge. Marchand had three assists in the game.
“I thought Bergeron’s line set the tone for us,” Montgomery said. “A couple of great forechecking goals. I thought everybody was involved. … That unselfishness that we’ve seen throughout the year was very evident tonight.”
UP NEXT
Bruins: Finish their five-game road trip at Buffalo on Sunday.
Wild: Host Washington on Sunday.
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