Geekie scores twice in Bruins win against Mammoth

BOSTON -- Morgan Geekie scored twice for the Boston Bruins in a 4-1 win against the Utah Mammoth at TD Garden on Tuesday.

Geekie has 24 goals in 34 games this season, which is second in the NHL behind Nathan MacKinnon (26 goals) of the Colorado Avalanche.

“It’s fun to watch,” Bruins forward David Pastrnak said of Geekie. “It’s fun to see him get better every day. He’s been proving it the whole year, so it’s great. It’s not easy to score in this league, not easy to find open ice, but he's done it. He’s a big part of our group and where we’re at.”

Pastrnak had two assists, and Jeremy Swayman made 20 saves for the Bruins (20-14-0), who have won five of six and were beginning a five-game homestand.

Barrett Hayton scored, and Vitek Vanecek made 19 saves for Utah (16-16-3), who had won two in a row and will conclude a three-game road trip at the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday.

“I want more ownership. I don’t know if it’s accountability or ownership,” Utah coach Andre Tourigny said. “We’re in their building. It’s one thing to say it in the room, it’s another thing to buckle up, push back and be ready for their answer. ... Let it hurt and then be professional, mature, assess what we could’ve done better, fix it and get at it tomorrow.”

Hayton scored a power-play goal to give the Mammoth a 1-0 lead at 8:34 of the first period. Sean Durzi sent a sharp pass down to Hayton, who redirected it under the arm of Swayman as the goalie was moving across to cover the left post.

“We had some good movement in Pittsburgh (on Sunday) and found some rotations being interchangeable, always having a guy at the net with an attack mindset, and I thought we did a really good job on that first power play,” Hayton said. “We had a power play at the start of the third period but we didn’t execute. Those are the moments we want to be in and want to come up big for this group, so it’s frustrating not getting it done.”

The Bruins answered with their own power-play goal to tie it 1-1 at 16:01 of the first. Pastrnak sent a cross-ice pass to Geekie in the bottom of the left circle, where he shot into an open net past the diving glove of Vanecek.

“Obviously, I take pride in that a lot, but it’s not something I put a lot of stress on,” Geekie said of his offensive output. “You saw it the other night in St. Louis when (Mark Kastelic and Fraser Minten) had two, and I know Minnesota wasn’t a good outcome (a 6-2 loss on Sunday), but we’re getting goals from everybody. Up and down the lineup we’re built like that and we’re able to rely on different guys, but for me, I just go out there and play hard at both ends of the rink and try to take advantage on special teams.”

Geekie scored his second goal of the game 23 seconds into the second period to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead. Following a face-off win by Elias Lindholm, Geekie quickly went to the front of the net to set a screen. Vanecek then made the initial save on Pastrnak’s turnaround shot from above the left circle, but Geekie collected the rebound in front and slid it around the goalie's left pad.

“I tried to get to the middle, but I had a couple of guys on me,” Pastrnak said. “I recognized I was able to spin and shoot away, and it was [Geekie’s] job to go to the net. A couple of good tips and [Geekie] showing another way of scoring goals, going into those areas and getting a nice rebound goal.”

Casey Mittelstadt pushed the lead to 3-1 at 10:16 of the third period. He passed across the zone on an odd-mad rush to Pavel Zacha, whose initial shot from the left circle went wide of the net. However, the rebound caromed off the end boards to Mittelstadt, who scored into an open net from a sharp angle.

“I feel like I’m just getting open and guys are finding me,” Mittelstadt said. “I’ve got to give credit to my linemates, because it’s good plays by them and I’ve got the easy job of putting it in an empty net.”

Michael Eyssimont scored with his backhand on a breakaway at 16:02 to make it 4-1.

“We’re built to play a grinding game, and sometimes when you come out a little slow we’re able to get to our game pretty quickly with the systems in place and with the way the coaches have had us all buy in,” Geekie said. “It’s a culture thing. We were able to bounce back tonight. We didn’t start out great, but it was good to battle back and get two points.”

NOTES: Prior to the game, the Bruins claimed defenseman Vladislav Kolyachonok off waivers from the Dallas Stars and placed defenseman Jonathan Aspirot (upper body) on injured reserve. ... Pastrnak has nine points (two goals, seven assists) in four games since returning from an undisclosed injury, which caused him to miss five games.