Bruins Ring in New Year With 6-2 Win Over Oilers

EDMONTON –– The Boston Bruins rang in the New Year on a high note.

2026 started with a 6-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday at Rogers Place. It snapped the B’s six-game losing streak, fueled by a three-point showing from David Pastrnak and a 34-save performance from Jeremy Swayman.

Special teams also came up strong for the Bruins, who went 5-for-5 on the penalty kill and scored a power-play goal.

“Feels really good. I think everyone is sick of losing,” head coach Marco Sturm said. “I am just proud of the way we played today and the way we came out. I don’t think a lot of people thought we [could] grab two points here tonight, but we did.”

Pastrnak scored his second goal in three games – and 16th of the season – to put the Bruins up 1-0 at 7:28 of the first period while on the power play. Charlie McAvoy released a shot from the high slot, and Pastrnak picked up the rebound from the end boards and banked it off Edmonton netminder Connor Ingram.

The Bruins doubled their advantage when Casey Mittelstadt collected a feed from former Oiler Viktor Arvidsson and wristed it from the left circle. The forward’s ninth goal of the year made it 2-0 at 18:13.​

Edmonton got on the board in the last 41 seconds of the period, with a tally from Zach Hyman to cut it to 2-1 ahead of the middle frame. Hampus Lindholm, though, regained the B’s two-goal lead in the second.

Arvidsson carried the puck into the zone and dropped it to Fraser Minten, who found Lindholm on the left side. The defenseman lasered it from the wall for the 3-1 lift at 7:05, and his third goal of the season. It marked Arvidsson’s second assist of the night; it was his second two-point showing of the year.

“Nice to get a win here to end the year. We’ve got to just keep going in 2026 and keep building off this game,” Arvidsson said. “I think everybody in here played [the Oilers] enough – they’re not going away. They’re going to push; their offensive talent is out of this world. I think we just had to stay on it and be on our game.”

The B’s widened the gap to 4-1 at 18:19. Pastrnak broke into the zone on an odd-man rush, showed patience in front of the net and hit Jonathan Aspirot with a cross-crease pass, which the defenseman knocked in. It was Aspirot’s second goal of the year, in his second game back from an upper-body injury.

“You have to keep playing until the last whistle. Can’t sit back – that’s when it’s going to bite you,” Pastrnak said.

Elias Lindholm extended the Bruins’ lead to 5-1 at 4:20 of the third period, before Jack Roslovic made it 5-2 at 7:22. Pastrnak’s second goal – and third point – of the night brought the contest to its final 6-2 standing.

“It’s excellent. It’s good to get out of that slump and do it the right way,” Swayman said. “I think we can take a lot out of this game and build a lot of confidence. We know what we can do in this league. And consistency is everything – I think we can take this and move forward and really build some momentum.”

​Boston is back in action on Saturday when they face the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena for the fourth matchup of its five-game road trip.

​“We have an amazing group of guys in the room. It’s only been half a season, but we’ve been through so much,” Pastrnak. “We’re there for each other every night – no matter if we are losing or winning. That’s all you can ask. You don’t take it for granted. You don’t get special groups every year. We just have to build and become even tighter.”