Bruins Cap Successful Road Trip with Win in Calgary

CALGARY - The Bruins certainly would have preferred not to leave any points on the table during their swing through Western Canada. But when they departed the Scotiabank Saddledome on Saturday night, there was hardly reason to be disappointed as they headed back to Boston with five of a possible six points in the bag following a 4-2 victory over the Calgary Flames in the finale of their three-game road trip.
"Credit to our group in the third period for responding the way they did the last two games and sticking to it and playing the way that they want to play," said assistant coach Joe Sacco. "It was a successful road trip. Five out of six points. It wasn't an easy trip for us, especially the travel and the back-to-back that we had, so we're real proud of our players as a staff and what they did on this trip."

Despite a grueling stretch of travel, several players battling through illness, a back-to-back, and matchups against two of the best teams in the Western Conference, the Bruins - now with points in five straight games - banded together and put forth some of their strongest team efforts of the season.
"We've got to be happy," said Brad Marchand. "This is a tough road trip with the travel that we had and back-to-back and coming in here with the way Calgary's playing and obviously Edmonton, the two best players in the league. And [Vancouver's] buzzing right now under that new coach, so I think all things considered we have to be very happy getting five points, had an opportunity to get six.
"We're starting to find our game a little bit better and relying on different guys each night. You saw that tonight…it's great to see."

More news and notes from the Bruins' 4-2 win over the Flames on Saturday night:

UP TO THE TASK:For the second straight game, Linus Ullmark made more than 40 saves to pick up the victory as he turned away 41 Calgary shots to pace the Bruins. The netminder was particularly strong on the penalty kill as he denied the Flames on 10 of their 11 shots with the man advantage.
"Another solid outing again here tonight for us," said Sacco. "Came up big, especially in the first two periods when we were, at times, hemmed in our end zone a little bit too much. He made the quality saves when we needed them. Goaltending's been good lately, given us a chance to win.
"Hopefully he can continue to find that success. He's tracking the puck very well…he was competitive in the net. That's the biggest thing. You're competitive in there, you give yourself a chance. He gave our team a chance the last two games."
Ullmark described how he is thriving alongside Jeremy Swayman as the Bruins' goaltending duo pushes each other to improve while embracing a healthy competition.
"He pushes me to become a better goaltender every day," said Ullmark. "He goes out there and he plays his heart out…that keeps me motivated and keeps me on my toes. I know if I ever have a couple rough starts or whatever, he's gonna pick up the torch and keep playing for us. He's a terrific goaltender.
"There's a lot of friendship going on there, but there's a lot of pride. We always want to play every night, but whenever there's an opportunity for the other guy to play, the other guy is always very supportive."

GETTING EVEN:The Bruins have struggled to score consistently at points this season, particularly at even strength, a trend that had continued over the first two games of the trip with the B's only 5-on-5 goal coming via Matt Grzelcyk in the closing minutes of their win over Edmonton. But the Black & Gold flipped the script on Saturday night, scoring all four of their goals at even strength - Connor Clifton at 17:43 of the first, Marchand at 5:52 of the second, Charlie McAvoy at 6:48 of the second, and Curtis Lazar at 2:57 of the third.
"I thought that in the second period we made some good hockey plays," said Sacco. "We got pucks to the net, we had some good possession down low on a couple of the goals there. The big goal was obviously the one in the third period.
"That was a good job by our line there with Freddy and Laser. They did a really good job of battling down low and getting to the net, attacking the net, things that line needs to do to be successful. We were happy for that line to contribute in that way tonight."
Marchand noted that sometimes a little bit of puck luck goes a long way as evidenced by his second-period marker. With the B's top line set to head off for a change, David Pastrnak spun high in the Calgary zone and fired a shot toward the net. Marchand was planted in the slot to tip it by Flames goalie Jacob Markstrom and put Boston on top, 2-0, early in the middle frame.
"DP is very talented up there. He's very deceptive," said Marchand. "When he spins, a lot of times he looks to pass across the ice so I was kind of waiting on that. Did a great job holding that guy off and getting the puck to the net. Luckily that one went in.
"We've put a lot of pucks to the net this year and haven't necessarily gotten the breaks that you hope for as a group. If you continue to do the right things and put pucks to the net, eventually they're gonna go in and we did that.
"On all of those plays, guys did the little things right. That's kind of what we've been harping on is taking care of the details."

MOVING FOURTH:In addition to Lazar's insurance tally - his second goal in four games - the Bruins' fourth line also factored in significantly on Clifton's opening tally in the first period. Blidh chipped the puck to Frederic in the neutral zone before Frederic surged into the Calgary end and found Clifton along the right-wing boards. The blue liner finished it off with a sharp angle wrister over the glove of Markstrom for his first of the year.
"They were very good. They were very good tonight," said Sacco. "I thought they had good juice. They skated well. They played a solid game. You could tell that they had probably not had the ice time previously that the other lines had, and they had a little bit more extra in their game tonight."
Frederic also assisted on Lazar's goal, as he surged through neutral ice and tossed a backhand attempt on Markstrom. With Blidh charging hard to crease, Frederic circled the net, collected the loose puck, and threw another backhander on the Flames netminder, who kicked out a rebound to Lazar. The two-assist showing was Frederic's his first career multi-point game.
"He was skating," said Sacco. "Freddy, if he can just continue to build his game in that direction and be hard on pucks, move his feet, be physical, certainly brings an element to our group that we need. Good for Freddy tonight."

TOWARDS THE TOP:Patrice Bergeron notched two assists on Saturday night - one on Marchand's goal and another on McAvoy's tally - giving him 555 for his career. His first helper of the night moved him past Phil Esposito for fourth place on the B's all-time assists list.