Bruins cruise past reeling Hurricanes

BOSTON – In a discussion of Boston Bruins players who are candidates to center Brad Marchand and Jaromir Jagr, Gregory Campbell's name probably wouldn't come to many people's lips.

However, that was the trio which powered the Bruins to a slump-busting rout of the Carolina Hurricanes on Monday.

Marchand scored two goals, Campbell and Jagr chipped in with a pair of assists each and Dennis Seidenberg produced a career-high three assists as the Bruins bested the Hurricanes, 6-2, at TD Garden.

The combination of Campbell with Jagr and Marchand was part of a three-line shakeup during practice Sunday by coach Claude Julien.

"We had a good game. We clicked pretty well tonight, pretty fast," Marchand said after he snapped a five-game goal drought. "We only had one practice together and we seemed to be able to find each other out there pretty good. So it was good. It was tough that we got scored on there, but overall it was pretty good."

Tuukka Rask stopped 40 shots to earn the win for the Bruins. He has stopped 107 of 111 shots in the Bruins' past three games (two wins and a loss).

"I felt sharp throughout the year, I think," Rask said. "But it's just trying to be calm and just poised out there, and it's been good the past three games. So I'm just trying to keep that up."

Carolina, meanwhile, has now lost five in a row. The Hurricanes outshot Boston, 18-9, in the first period, but had little to show for it. Rask robbed Zac Dalpe with a skate save on a 2-on-none when the game was still 0-0.

By the end of the first period, the Bruins led 3-0.

"We came in after the first, down 3-0 and I didn't think we played that bad of a first period," Carolina forward Jeff Skinner said. "It's just the way it goes sometimes. Sometimes, it just sort of snowballs on you. You just have to battle through it and sort of find a way to get a win."

The Bruins had scored more than two goals in just three of their past 11 games and their six goals set a new season high. It was just the third time this season they scored five or more goals.

The least-heralded of the Bruins' new lines broke put Boston the board first, as Rich Peverley – centering Jordan Caron and Shawn Thornton for the first time this season – stuffed a puck in the net 3:51 into the game. Peverley's shot had deflected off Peters and came out on the other side of the net off the rear glass. Peverley's shots were the first two by the Bruins in the game.

"It was really big," Marchand said about Peverley's goal. "We seemed to be panicking a lot off the bat and they came out very hard and played a really good game. After [Peverley] scored, we got a little bit of life back and we seemed to get a little more composed and we seemed to play a lot better after that."

Marchand doubled the Bruins' lead 7:58 into period, as the winger cleaned up a rebound of a Campbell wrap-around attempt. The goal was Boston's fourth shot on net and chased Justin Peters, who was replaced by Dan Ellis.

The Bruins beat Ellis once on five shots through the rest of the period. After Jagr circled the net and attempted a wraparound, the rebound deflected to Marchand for a backhand goal from just below the left hash mark.

"I guess the scoring was spread out, so no doubt that it was better than it has been, just relying one line," Julien said.

Andrew Ference made sure the Bruins' offensive outbursts continued in the second period. After he kept the puck in with a solid pinch down the wall during a line change, Ference went to the net and deflected Seidenberg's shot past Ellis at 3:57.

The Bruins extended to a 5-0 lead at 10:29, when Caron cleaned up a loose puck in front after a Thornton drive at 10:29.

Patrick Dwyer put the Hurricanes on the board with 9:57 remaining, when he beat Rask through the five-hole with a backhand shot in front of the net. Just 45 seconds later, Drayson Bowman scored the Hurricanes' second goal on a tap-in from behind Rask after the Bruins' goaltender saved Bowman's initial shot on the rush.

"Yeah, I just think we have to take the positives," Skinner said. "There are a lot of good things in our game. There are some things that we could have done better, but you can't do anything about it now. So, just try to move on and move forward and get ready for the game tomorrow."

Nathan Horton put the Bruins back ahead by four with a tip-in with 3:04 remaining.