BOSTON — After nearly letting a three-goal lead get away from them in the third period on Saturday, the Bruins didn’t let things get interesting on Tuesday.
Behind three goals by David Pastrnak and two from Justin Brazeau, Boston rolled over the Senators, 6-2, at TD Garden.
The win sets up a showdown between the Bruins (41-14-15) and Rangers on Thursday at TD Garden.
If not for Pastrnak it would have been a quiet first period. He scored his 42nd goal of the year on a tip. Matt Grzelcyk unloaded a shot from the left point and Pastrnak got his stick on it, turning a low hard shot into a fluttering puck that floated by Joonas Korpisalo to put Boston up 1-0, 8:27 into the game.
Just under three minutes later, Pastrnak jumped a passing lane and stole a pass at the Bruins’ blue line and took off on a breakaway. He finished with a backhand flip past Korpisalo to make it 2-0. the goal moved him into a tie for seventh place on the Bruins’ career list with Cam Neely at 344 goals.
The Senators badly outshot the Bruins in the second period. Boston killed off an early 5-on-3, but Shane Pinto scored on a 5-on-4 with 6:52 left to make it 2-1.
Justin Brazeau’s second NHL goal came on the power play. He scooped the rebound of Kevin Shattenkirk’s shot off of Korpisalo’s pads and tucked it behind him to make it 3-1 with 1:09 left in the second.
After seeing just five shots in the first period, Linus Ullmark made 21 of his 30 saves in the period to keep the Bruins ahead, but couldn’t freeze a late rebound, allowing a Brady Tkachuk goal with 2.3 seconds left to make it 3-2 at the second intermission.
Pastrnak brought down the headwear, 4:43 into the third period. Skating right to left across the high slow he took a big sweeping backhand that beat Korpisalo for Pastrnak’s 19th career hat trick and second this season.
Anybody watching Jesper Boqvist’s goal 25 seconds later wouldn’t have guessed that was only his fifth goal. He took a pass from Shattenkirk going into the zone on the right point, raced by a defenseman and put a backhand deke on the goalie to to make it 5-2.
Brazeau added his second power-play goal of the game with 1:54 left.
Here are three takeaways from the Bruins’ win:
The Bruins extend their lead in the Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference — The Bruins entered the night with a one-point lead in the Atlantic Division over the Panthers, who had played one fewer game than Boston. The win gave them a three-point lead, while Florida has two games in hand.
The New York Rangers, who also trailed Boston by a point, albeit in the conference standings, lost to Winnipeg, leaving them three points back with one game in hand.
Kevin Shattenkirk, who’ll be competing for ice time for the rest of the season, helped his case — For the rest of the regular season and through the playoffs, the Bruins will have eight defensemen playing for six spots in the lineup. Shattenkirk figures to be just ahead or just behind the cut line each game.
But on Tuesday, he doubly helped his cause. Shattenkirk, a right-shot defenseman, not only played on the left side with Andrew Peeke, but he had three assists from that spot. Having the versatility to play on either side could hugely help his chances of playing more.
Pavel Zacha still streaking — Pavel Zacha ran his season-long scoring streak to eight games with an assist on Pastrnak’s first goal. He had five goals and six assists over that period. Pastrnak has points in six straight games with six goals and three assists over that stretch.