Bruins Hold off Kraken, Extend Winning Streak to Five Games

BOSTON -- Mark Kastelic scored the deciding goal while short-handed for the Boston Bruins, who extended their winning streak to five games with a 4-2 victory against the Seattle Kraken at TD Garden on Thursday.

Marat Khusnutdinov, Viktor Arvidsson and David Pastrnak also scored, and Charlie McAvoy had two assists for the Bruins (27-19-2), who have won seven of their past eight. Jeremy Swayman made 26 saves to help Boston finish a sweep of a five-game homestand.

“I think we’ve been very steady, actually,” Boston coach Marco Sturm said of his team’s play on the homestand. “And if you look at our third periods now, all five games at home, they’ve probably been one of our better ones. So I think that was the biggest reason (for the home success). Just to be more consistent, stay calm and play better defensively. And obviously, our goalies were excellent.”

Chandler Stephenson and Eeli Tolvanen scored for the Kraken (21-16-9), who are 1-3-1 in their past five and lost in regulation for the second time in 14 games (9-2-3). Joey Daccord made 20 saves.

“I thought we played a pretty good game,” Tolvanen said. “The first three or four minutes was the difference in today’s game with their 2-0 lead, but other than that we played well and had our chances.”

Seattle was coming off a 3-2 overtime loss at the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday.

“Tonight wasn’t a good result,” Kraken defenseman Brandon Montour said. “It was tough to give up two early on, but for the most part I thought we were pretty solid. We had chances to at least get a point, but unfortunately we didn’t.”

Khusnutdinov gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead at 54 seconds of the first period. McAvoy banked a stretch pass off the boards near the Kraken bench, allowing Khusnutdinov to retrieve it with speed and beat Daccord with a forehand-to-backhand deke.

“It shows me he’s confident and that’s what we want,” Sturm said of Khusnutdinov’s effort on the play. “He’s been outstanding all season long, and he knows where he is right now with the team. He’s killing penalties. He’s playing on the top line and now he’s scoring a few goals, too. I’m very happy with the way he’s developing, the way he’s playing for us and our team.”

Arvidsson increased the lead to 2-0 at 3:45. Pavel Zacha entered the offensive zone and made a cross-ice pass to Arvidsson, who attempted a centering pass to Casey Mittelstadt from the left side before the puck ricocheted off the stick of Kraken forward Jaden Schwartz and into the net.

“We’re healthy, we’re really skating and helping each other, finding each other with close passes and really connecting,” Arvidsson said of his line. “We’re just having fun out there and that’s a big part of it, too.”

Seattle coach Lane Lambert called a timeout following Arvidsson’s goal.

“We’re down 2-0 and something has to happen,” Tolvanen said. “We had a pretty good push back, but a couple of early mistakes cost us today. The team responded pretty well (after the timeout). We started skating, moving and creating offense, too.”

The Kraken cut the deficit to 2-1 on Stephenson’s power-play goal at 7:29. He was positioned in front to redirect Jared McCann’s centering pass.

Kastelic then pushed the advantage to 3-1 at 4:40 of the second period. He stripped the puck from Matty Beniers inside the Seattle blue line, gained control and skated in on Daccord before chipping a backhand to the short side.

“That was huge,” Sturm said. “It was a weird time of the game. We were up one goal, they were pushing pretty good, so it was a critical time of the game and his effort, with a nice goal, helped us a lot to win tonight’s hockey game.”

Tolvanen cut it to 3-2 at 12:27 with a power-play goal, one-timing a loose puck in the right circle.

“It’s always nice to see the power play get a couple goals,” he said.

Pastrnak scored into an empty net on the power play with 15 seconds remaining in the third period for the 4-2 final. That gave Pastrnak his 10th career 20-goal season, moving him into a tie with Rick Middleton for the fourth most in Bruins history.

Bruins defenseman Andrew Peeke left the game with a lower-body injury late in the first period and did not return.

“He’s going to try to skate [Friday], so we’ll see how it is,” Sturm said. “He’ll definitely come on the road (to Chicago, where Boston plays Saturday) and we don’t think it’s going to be long term. Hopefully, he’ll be back in Chicago, or the latest in Dallas (on Tuesday).”

NOTES: The Bruins retired Zdeno Chara’s No. 33 before the game, honoring his Hockey Hall of Fame career that included winning the Stanley Cup in 2011 with Boston. A Norris Trophy winner with the Bruins in 2008-09 as the NHL’s best defenseman, Chara was captain for all 14 of his seasons in Boston (2006-20). “It was an incredible night, and what an honor for Big Zee and everything he accomplished here,” Swayman said. “He’s a huge motivator for us and we want to be hanging right next to him one day. We had it circled on our calendar and it was perfect how it played out.”