Bruins Beat Sharks 6-4 in Back-and-Forth Affair at TD Garden

BOSTON –– In a third period that had a cumulative six goals, the Boston Bruins did not let up on their game and came away with a 6-4 win over the San Jose Sharks on Saturday at TD Garden.

It marked the B’s seventh win in the last eight games, and fourth consecutive win on home ice.

​Casey Mittelstadt opened scoring for the Bruins early in the first period. Saturday’s tally – Mittelstadt’s fourth of the season – came after a relentless shift from his third line with James Hagens and Elias Lindholm. Hagens worked the puck away from two Sharks behind the net, pushing it up to Lindholm in the crease, who chipped it over to Mittelstadt to knock in for the 1-0 lead at 3:08.

“Obviously any time you can kind of jump on someone, especially [because] we knew they had a long road trip and this was their last game,” Mittelstadt said. “Definitely good to get one early and have a good start.”

Michael Misa backhanded a power-play goal home for San Jose at 5:54, and the teams went into the middle frame tied 1-1.

Marat Khusnutdinov, who signed a three-year extension on Wednesday, regained Boston’s advantage. Fraser Minten protected the puck while battling off a Sharks defenseman and slid it over to Morgan Geekie in front, who got a stick on it before Khusnutdinov flipped it past San Jose goalie Alex Nedeljkovic. The 24-year-old forward’s third goal of the season made it 2-1 at 8:20.

​The Sharks pulled ahead, 3-2, with a shorthanded shot from Kiefer Sherwood at 13:34 of the second and a power-play goal from Dmitry Orlov at 4:03 of the third.

Boston then exploded for two goals in 40 seconds to go up 4-3 by the 9:07 mark of the third. David Pastrnak broke out of the penalty box and immediately into the rush with JJ Peterka, who dished the puck to the captain on the right side. Pastrnak’s snapshot knotted the contest 3-3 at 8:27 and marked his team-leading seventh goal of the year.

​“It was a lucky bounce to get out the penalty box, and it was 3-on-2. I kind of knew that JJ had it and I knew he was going to look for me. In my mind, I was only shooting first…I wanted to keep it simple [rather] than thinking about what happened on the previous shift,” Pastrnak said. “We know we were far from our best today. It’s okay, we ended up winning, and it’s hard to win in this league, so we take the two points. But we also have much better than that.”

Hagens shortly followed it up with a gritty wrist shot in close, dumping in the rebound of Lindholm’s attempt. Hagens’ fourth goal of the season –– and second point of the night –– made it 4-3.

“It’s not easy to score in this league. I just feel like if you keep going to the net, hopefully good things will happen. Lindy made a great play and Casey, so just to be able to be there and you just take the shovel out and try to whack it in the net. That’s really about all you can do,” Hagens said. “It’s crazy how loud the crowd was tonight. It was a super cool feeling. That’s something that I will be able to remember for the rest of my career and the rest of my life."​

Hagens has become familiar with the inside ice around the crease. It is where he has found success as a rookie goal-scorer.

“That was something right away we noticed – this is not college anymore,” Sturm said of Hagens. “I think he realized pretty soon, and we’re pushing him pretty hard, getting more to the paint, more to the inside. That’s where you score the goals, so good for him that he realized that. Look at his four goals he has scored. Good for him – for just listening and also taking it really seriously. I’m glad it works out.”

Minten added on with a power-play tally at 12:00; Minten, Peterka and Mittelstadt collected their second points of the game on the scoring play.

“Just win a period and win a game. It wasn’t our cleanest today, but a tie game going into the third, we’ll take it, and we can close those out,” Minten said. “We came out and wanted to make that happen.”

​Will Smith got the Sharks within one, 5-4, at 12:27 but Will Borgen’s empty-netter brought the contest to its final 6-4 standing at 19:32.

The Bruins are now back on the road, facing the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday and the St. Louis Blues on Thursday.