The Bruins were not able to enjoy much of the sun in an unusually dreary California on their three-game excursion to the West Coast.
Instead, they just basked in the heat emanating from David Pastrnak.
On the three-game run out west, Pastrnak notched seven goals and an assist, finishing up with a hat trick against the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday in the B’s 7-1 victory on the second half of a 22-hour back-to-back, finishing off the Cali sweep. With his three-goal output (30, 31, 32), Pastrnak drew to within one goal of league leader Connor McDavid.
The victory pushed the B’s record to 32-4-4, ran their road mark to 13-4-1 and extended their point streak to 14 games at 11-0-3. It’s anyone’s guess how high the meter has risen for Pastrnak’s next contract.
Pastrnak just missed notching a hatty and his 30th goal on Saturday night when San Jose’s Logan Couture blocked his attempt on an empty net late in the B’s 4-2 win over the Sharks. But he didn’t have to wait long on Sunday – just 3:49, to be exact – to reach that plateau for the sixth time in his career.
The sniper carried the puck into the Anaheim zone and passed up a chance to feed Charlie McAvoy, who appeared to be walking into a slapper. Instead, Pastrnak dumped it into the corner, where Pavel Zacha pushed it to David Krejci. The centerman dished it out to Pastrnak in the right circle from where he blasted a one-timer past goalie John Gibson for the 1-0 lead.
The Czech line made it 2-0 at 9:46, but not before the Ducks thought they’d tied it up. In a scramble around the B’s goal mouth, former Duck Hampus Lindholm – playing his first game back at the Honda Center since the trade that sent him to Boston last season – helped the net off its moorings a second or so before Trevor Zegras buried it behind Jeremy Swayman. The goal was initially washed out and, after some discussion, that ruling stood.
On the next shift, Krejci put the B’s up 2-0, this time with Pastrnak feeding the centerman from behind the net for Krejci’s 11th of the season.
But the Ducks have some skill, and Zegras would get his goal with 3:05 left in the first. After taking a Trent Frederic hit high in the Anaheim zone, he stepped into a Ryan Strome feed at the left dot that beat Swayman to the shortside. Zegras immediately started to bark at Frederic, whom he had beaten up the ice. That set off a rather large scrum in front of the benches, with both teams losing a player (Brad Marchand and Max Comtois) for two minutes.
On the ensuing 4-on-4, Gibson robbed Krejci on a backhander to keep the Duck deficit at a goal. The B’s then had to kill off a 4-on-3 when Pastrnak took an O-zone hooking penalty, which they did.
In the second period, the B’s spent a lot of time in the Anaheim zone, especially the third line of Taylor Hall, Charlie Coyle and Frederic, but were not able to extend the lead again until they got their first power play midway through the period. And then Pastrnak put the hammer down in a matter of 17 seconds.
First on the man-advantage, Pastrnak put back a rebound from relatively short range.
Then on the next shift, Matt Grzelcyk sprung Pastrnak for a clean breakaway. He went with a tight forehand-backhand-forehand and then roofed it past the helpless Gibson at 12:13 to give the B’s a commanding 4-1 lead.
The B’s showed no mercy in the third. Brad Marchand, who had a pretty good trip himself (3-3-6), added another goal in the third period as did the former Duck Lindholm (of course) and Coyle to allow the B’s to coast home with a romp.
