Pastrnak Posts Three Points in Bruins 4-3 Win Over Vegas 

BOSTON –– The Boston Bruins bounced back on Thursday at TD Garden.

​After two games on the road – and a loss to the Dallas Stars on Tuesday – the B’s beat the Vegas Golden Knights 4-3 in front of their fans. It marked their sixth consecutive win on home ice.

“I think we just had the right attitude,” head coach Marco Sturm said. “We touched on a few things from the Dallas game; we just didn’t like the game, how it went and how it turned out. I think overall, guys just showed up today, and they wanted to prove anyone wrong that that’s not our game. We’re better than that.”

The Bruins also celebrated Hockey is for Everyone Night, an NHL initiative that utilizes the sport to promote inclusive communities regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, disability, sexual orientation or socio-economic status.

“Here, within our room, we’ve tried to do things as well to echo that message and make everybody feel safe and comfortable within the game. It’s very important,” Charlie McAvoy said. “I’m happy that tonight we won on this night, and hopefully a lot of people feel the support of the Bruins.”

The defenseman got his team going with the first of three goals within 54 seconds in the first period after Tomas Hertl was dealt four minutes for high-sticking Alex Steeves.

McAvoy passed back and forth with David Pastrnak at the blue line before ripping it past Vegas netminder Akira Schmid for the 1-0 lead at 9:12. It was McAvoy’s fourth goal of the season and first on the power play.

Boston doubled its advantage soon after with another power-play goal, this time from Elias Lindholm. Morgan Geekie swung the puck over to Pastrnak, who found Lindholm in the slot where he snapped it home at 9:42 to make it 2-0, and earn his ninth of the year. Geekie and Pastrnak logged two assists each in the span of 30 seconds.

“We were direct, and it went in today. Big two goals. Obviously, that sets up the confidence and the game when we can help out the team with two goals right away,” Pastrnak said. “We’ve been playing some good hockey in this building. The fans are behind us, so just have to keep building on that.”

Tanner Jeannot finished the burst of scoring with a sharp-angled shot from the left side at 10:06. Sean Kuraly kept the puck in the zone and dropped it to his linemate, Jeannot, who pushed it to 3-0. The helper marked Kuraly’s 100th career assist.

“It’s been really good,” Jeannot said of his line with Kuraly and Mark Kastelic. “All three of us play a really simple game and support each other well. We just want to be hard on other teams and play in the O-zone as much as we can. Got rewarded tonight.”

Pastrnak posted his third point of the night and 21st goal of the season off a strong setup from Nikita Zadorov at 7:25 of the second period. Pastrnak’s wrist shot made it 4-0, and extended his point streak to five games.

​Jack Eichel got the Golden Knights on the board 31 seconds into the third period, and Hertl followed it up with a PPG at 3:01 for the 4-2 scoreline. Pavel Dorofeyev’s tally at 17:25 brought the matchup to its final 4-3 standing, as the Bruins held on until the buzzer.

“Obviously, not the third period that we wanted. We’d like to dictate a little bit more and maintain that lead better than we did,” McAvoy said. “But at the end of the day, we still saw it through and got two points. That is all that matters.”

The Bruins are back in action on Saturday when they host the Montreal Canadiens at TD Garden.