Marchand's Five-Point Game Propels Bruins Over Flyers

BOSTON- Sometimes the bounces just go your way.
After getting in the way of a Sean Couturier shot from the point, Brad Marchand charged toward the loose puck, which had deflected into the neutral zone. The winger corralled the puck and raced in on Philadelphia goalie Michal Neuvirth, taking a hook from Ivan Provorov along the way.
The hook - which may have led to a penalty shot - jarred loose the puck, which trickled through Neuvirth's five-hole without Marchand having to take a shot.

The shorthanded tally tied the game midway through the first period and set the tone for Marchand's five-point afternoon, which paced the Bruins to a rousing 6-3 victory over the Flyers on Saturday afternoon at TD Garden. Boston is now 3-1-1 over their last five games.
"That's how hockey goes sometimes - pucks bounce your way and other times they don't, you know," said Marchand, who had two goals and three assists while playing in his 500th NHL game. "It is nice when things are going your way, you feel a little more confident, you're able to do things that you're a little nervous to try at different times.
"But again, I think our team's playing really good hockey right now and everyone's just playing good."

The five-point afternoon was Marchand's second such performance of the season, as he also had two goals and three assists in the season opener in Columbus. He now has 12 points (seven goals, five assists) over his last six contests.
"Well I think, right now, he's feeling it, and that's the word I use when I talk about Brad," said Bruins coach Claude Julien. "When he's feeling it, he makes a lot of good things happen, and it hasn't always been like that this year. But now he's starting to heat up, and that's a good sign.
"That's one of the key traits that he has, is anticipation and knowing when to make those moves that he's been making, and in less high-risk situations. So, it's nice to see him coming around that way."
The shorthanded tally was Marchand's second of the season, tying him with several players, including teammate Dominic Moore, for the NHL lead. It was also Marchand's 21st career shorthanded goal, which is the most by any players since he entered the league in 2009-10.
"He's obviously been our leader offensively this year and he's got to keep playing the same way," said Torey Krug, who had a goal and an assist. "He tries to do that on a nightly basis so it's good for us. We do need secondary scoring in order for us to get on a roll here and keep going."

Marchand delivered the primary assist on Krug's second-period goal, which put the Bruins ahead 3-1. With Krug charging hard to the net, Marchand took a drop pass from David Pastrnak high in the offensive zone before sending a feed to Krug in the slot, where the blue liner tapped the puck past Neuvirth.
"It was a great pass," said Krug. "He almost fooled me on that. I'm just trying to create a middle lane drive and open up some space and he did a good job selling the shot and going to the net with a stick on the ice. It was pretty easy."
Marchand later picked up the primary assist on Patrice Bergeron's power-play tally at 13:04 of the second period and a secondary helper on Zdeno Chara's goal that gave Boston a 5-2 advantage just over two minutes later. Marchand also potted an empty-netter with 54 seconds to go to seal the victory.
"Our team's coming together now and we're all realizing how we have to play to win and we're connecting well with each other," said Marchand, who now has 17 goals and 26 assists for a team-leading 43 points. "I think it's more just shows that we're playing good hockey."

Krug's Hot Streak Continues

Krug's goal and assist gave the blueliner goals in three straight games and 14 points (3 goals, 11 assists) over his last 11 contests. Krug, who fired a game-high six shots on net, has produced a point in 10 of Boston's last 12 games.
"He's starting to feel it," said Julien, who compared Krug's recent stretch to that of Marchand's. "When you're confident, you can do a lot of things, and when confidence turns into good things, as you've seen those two guys accomplish, it certainly makes you that much of a better player.
"It's nice to see those guys, like I said, start to see things happening for them….that's been a key, again, to our group here being a lot better."

Chara Was Hard to Miss

It's difficult not to notice Chara on the ice. But the 6-foot-9-inch defenseman made sure to make it even easier when he waved his stick in the air in an attempt to grab the attention of David Pastrnak.
The Bruins captain was alone in the right circle when he took Pastrnak's cross-ice feed and let go a bomb that blew past Neuvirth at 15:18 of the second period.
"Well I was hard to miss, I had my stick 15 feet in the air," Chara said with a laugh. "But it's obviously a nice play that he made. We were just, again, moving ourselves and moving the puck, keeping kind of the momentum going and obviously he made a hell of a pass and saw me wide open and obviously I put it in the net."
Pastrnak, who also had a helper on Krug's goal, has registered seven assists over his last six games. He also tied Krug with a game-high six shots and was a plus-3 for the afternoon

Krejci Notches 500th NHL Point

David Krejci's power-play tally in the second period was his 500th NHL point. The goal, a snipe from the left circle, gave the Bruins a 2-1 lead just two minutes into the frame.
"Well, you need your best players to be your best players and the rest will follow up," said Krejci. "I thought we played a really strong game, other than the first ten minutes, we are still trying to work on it. But we are getting better at it and we got a big two points this afternoon."

Miller Exits After Hit from Behind

Kevan Miller took a hit from behind from Flyers forward Jakub Voracek during the second period Saturday and did not return. The club said Miller suffered an upper-body injury on the play, which resulted in a five-minute boarding major on Voracek.
"All I was told was he wasn't returning," said Julien. "So, that's all I know. It's, as you know, probably the old upper-body syndrome…I'm probably going to follow up there soon."

Odds and Ends

The Bruins scored two power-play goals on six attempts Saturday and now have at least one power-play goal in nine of their last 12 games. During that span, Boston is 11 of 42 (26.2%)….Boston had five different goal scorers, which is the second time this season that has occurred...Dominic Moore won nine of his 11 faceoffs...Boston is now 5-0-0 in afternoon games this season.