Bruins lead from start to finish in home opener

Four months to the day they last played meaningful hockey at TD Garden, the Bruins opened their home schedule. One would be forgiven if they didn’t notice.

Without much of any pomp and circumstance to celebrate an Eastern Conference championship season, the Bruins returned home from their successful four-game road stand to an equally successful home opener.

Against a Devils team the Bruins saw twice in the preseason, the Bruins took an early lead and never looked back, taking a  3-0 win on home ice for their fourth victory of the season. Tuukka Rask (31 saves) earned his first shutout of the season, and third win.

Any concerns about the top line could have been put to rest in Vegas, but the B’s top scorers showed up again, with Brad Marchand opening the scoring and Patrice Bergeron nabbing his first goal on the power play.

Like in three of their first four games prior, the Bruins (4-1-0) jumped on the scoreboard first.

Marchand tallied the Bruins first home goal of the season 3:33 into the game, on the B’s second shot of the game. A shot from the point deflected off the Devils’ Damon Severson and past Corey Schneider for the 1-0 lead.

With 8:38 left in the first, Joakim Nordstrom chipped home his first tally of the year to go ahead 2-0. Sean Kuraly won the draw, and on a broken play Nordstrom ended up at the doorstep, where he put in a goal in his second game back from injury.

The Bruins controlled possession for most of the second period, but didn’t score again until with 45 seconds remaining.

On the power play, Bergeron slid the puck in from the doorstep off Jake DeBrusk’s attempt in front to put the Bruins ahead 3-0 for his first goal of the season. DeBrusk earned an assist, his first point of the season.

Marchand also picked up a helper, the 300th of his career.

The Bruins killed off a third period Devils power play — their fourth kill of the game — to keep New Jersey from scoring its first man-advantage goal of the season.

Last time out in Colorado to end their road trip, the Bruins also jumped ahead 2-0, but didn’t score again in the final two periods; they did have two goals wiped off the board in that game, but this time they stuck another in that counted, expanding their lead and didn’t allowed the Devils space to come back, despite the heavy shot total against.

The Bruins continue their opening homestand on Monday against the surprisingly upstart Ducks.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2BiMPDD