Boston, MA – Charlie Coyle book-ended the Boston Bruins scoring, while Tuukka Rask made 29 saves, as the Bruins beat the visiting Arizona Coyotes 4-2 in a Saturday afternoon matinee. The Bruins extended their win streak to eight games and Rask remained unbeaten on TD Garden ice, pushing his franchise record home point streak to 18 games. The win over Arizona was also the 16th straight against the Coyotes for the Bruins.
The Coyotes, kicking-off a four game road trip, had a two on one early in first when Christian Dvorak dished to Christian Fletcher but Fletcher’s shot sailed high.
Boston defenseman Charlie McAvoy gave Arizona the game’s first power play when he was called for Hooking at 9:09. Rask made a statement early when he gloved Conor Garland‘s slapshot at point blank range. The puck fell to Garland at the bottom of the circle and he unloaded on Rask who casually gloved the puck out of the air.
Garland was sent to the box at 14:06 for High-Sticking. The Bruins only mustered one shot on Adin Hill (29 saves) on the man advantage. Hill was a last second starter in goal for the Coyotes as Antti Raanta was unable to go during pre-game warm-ups.
Jeremy Lauzon was called for High-Sticking at 17:27. The Coyotes struggled to generate offense while up a man.
At 19:39 Lauzon was sent off again for a hit on Derek Stepan. Lauzon was assessed a 10 minute Match Penalty for contact to the head. Anders Bjork would serve the 5 minute misconduct penalty.
Boston outshot Arizona 9-6 for the period and controlled the face-off dot 11-8.
Arizona struck first at 3:26 of the second. Phil Kessel buried a wrist shot in the Bruins net after Zdeno Chara‘s clearing attempt went right to Kessel. The unassisted power play goal was Kessel’s 12th goal of the season.
Lawson Crouse was called for Roughing at 4:46 when he leveled McAvoy in the Boston zone. The Bruins second ranked power play was unable to muster much against the Coyotes penalty kill.
At 6:50, four seconds after the penalty expired, Coyle tied the game 1-1 when he scorched a wrist shot past Hill at the right post. McAvoy slid the puck across the ice after drawing the Coyotes defense to his side and Coyle was all alone in front to notch his 11th of the year. David Krejci was also credited with his 26th assist.
An Interference call on Arizona’s Brad Richardson gave Boston another crack at the man advantage. It only took Boston seven seconds to capitalize when Patrice Bergeron tipped a David Pastrnak shot past Hill making it 2-1 Bruins. The goal was Bergeron’s 23rd of the season.
Niklas Hjalmarsson was called for Hooking at 14:13. Once again the Bruins power play made the Coyotes pay. Jake DeBrusk tipped a Pastrnak shot through the legs of Hill making it 3-1 Boston. DeBrusk’s goal was his 18th and the second assist for Pastrnak was his 39th. Pastrnak now has 76 points on the year.
Each team had a total of 21 shots after two periods. Arizona outshot Boston 15-12 in the period and won the face-off draws 12-5.
Just twenty-six seconds into the third period Coyotes Jakob Chychrun‘s wrist shot beat Rask glove-side high making it 3-2. Clayton Keller and Vinnie Hinostroza assisted on the defenseman’s 11th goal of the year.
Chris Wagner had two chances to build the lead back up when he was stonewalled in the crease by Hill. The second shot was gloved away by the 23-year-old goalie.
Arizona pulled Hill with 1:40 to go. Coyle’s second of the night capped off the win 4-2 at 19:11 when he launched the puck from the Boston blue line towards the empty net.
“I thought our power play was slow, in terms of our execution and puck movement,” said Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy. “We picked up our pace there and that always leads into the rest of your game, if the power play is going. It’s a lot of skill guys touching the puck, so that gets them going. They responded well.”
“We played hard, we had a couple of good looks to tie it,” said Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet. “I’m proud of the way the team played. Tough circumstances but we played a good game.”
Boston has another matinee on Sunday in Detroit against the Red Wings at 12:30 pm EST. Arizona travels to Montreal to take on the Canadiens on Monday. Puck drop is at 7:00 pm EST.
