Pastrnak runs point streak to 8, Bruins cruise past Jets

David Pastrnak had a goal and an assist in running his point streak to eight games, and the Boston Bruins defeated the Winnipeg Jets 6-1 at TD Garden in Boston on Thursday.

Pastrnak has 12 points (five goals, seven assists) during the streak.

The Bruins were coming off a 3-2 overtime loss at the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday.

“Coming home from a road trip, and I always feel like every time you play in Montreal, especially in Montreal, there's a lot of emotions involved,” Boston coach Marco Sturm said. “Even if we had a day off yesterday, you know, it's hard. It's hard to come back and bounce back. But I thought the guys did a really good job today. And overall we were under control of the game, played our game, scored six goals. Besides (Jeremy Swayman), best goalie in the League, it's not easy. The guys did a good job.”

Viktor Arvidsson, Pavel Zacha and Lukas Reichel also each had a goal and an assist for the Bruins (38-23-8), who have points in four straight games (2-0-2). Casey Mittelstadt had two assists, and Swayman made 23 saves.

“Definitely skill, you know, (Mittelstadt) gets in there,” Sturm said. “He’s just is very strong with his stick, and also like his wall play. He's one of the guys I trust on the wall any time of the game. And he just makes those plays. And again, it's the combo, I think it just works really well with (linemates Zacha and Arvidsson).”

The Bruins are tied in points with the Detroit Red Wings but hold the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference. Boston is also fourth in the Atlantic Division, tied in points with third-place Montreal and two points behind the second-place Tampa Bay Lightning. 

“We just go game by game,” Sturm said. “We try to collect points as much as we can. Every point is a good point. We're not going to look at (the standings), I'm going to go crazy if I'm going to do that. And I think players too. So we just have to focus just on our job and try to win our games as much as we can.”

Jonathan Toews scored, and Connor Hellebuyck made 21 saves for the Jets (28-29-11), who have lost four of their past six (2-3-1). They are four points behind the Los Angeles Kings for the second wild card in the Western Conference.

"I liked our first period. Execution started to deteriorate after that,” Winnipeg coach Scott Arniel said. “Our execution wasn't real good. And then as the game went on, as it got to 3-0, it was still a game. But at the end of the day, we didn't execute. Then our compete level dropped. As soon as you drop your compete level against a team like that, that's the result that you're going to get.”

Pastrnak made it 1-0 for the Bruins at 14:52 of the first period. He knocked down Kyle Connor’s clearing attempt in the left face-off circle and beat Hellebuyck through the five-hole.

“Looking at the score it got away, but I feel like it wasn’t a 6-1 game,” Jets forward Brad Lambert said. “I feel we had our fair share of chances as well and we weren’t able to capitalize on those, and they got a couple of bounces and it kind of snowballed from there.”

Reichel, making his debut for the Bruins, gave them a 2-0 lead at 6:23 of the second period, taking advantage of a favorable bounce off the boards behind the Jets net after Jonathan Aspirot’s dump-in. The bounce caught Hellebuyck out of position as he went behind the net to play the puck, and Reichel jumped on it and chipped it over Hellebuyck’s stick as the goaltender tried to recover.

“Just a bouncing puck -- happens to every goalie, I think. I was glad that I was the first guy on there,” Reichel said. “I think the crowd (in Boston) is always amazing, even when I played here against the Bruins. And it feels even better if you play for them.”

The forward was traded from the Vancouver Canucks on March 6.

“I think (Reichel) played a really good game,” Zacha said. “He’s fast, he made a lot of great plays there in the neutral zone and offensive zone, won some puck battles, so he had a great game today. We are happy to have him and hopefully he can keep getting better with our team here and help us win more games.”

Arvidsson made it 3-0 at 18:16. He reached to pull the puck, which went off the stick of Jets defenseman Haydn Fleury and glanced off Fleury’s shoulder before floating over Hellebuyck.

“I think those goals in the second were huge,” Arvidsson said. “I think we were really good on the forecheck tonight and turned pucks over (on them) and made it hard for their D. I think that's where we won the game.”

Zacha pushed it to 4-0 at 3:15 of the third period after Mittelstadt set him up for a one-timer from the left dot.

Zacha has eight goals in his past eight games.

“Missing the (2026 Winter) Olympics (for Team Czechia because of an upper-body injury) was something that was not the best mentally for me,” Zacha said. “But I was thinking about the whole break, ‘How can I kind of come back and be a difference maker?’ Just kind of focusing on the little things, winning the puck battles, being good in the face-off dot. I know with our power play and our lines that we're going to have a good push here. And that's something that I focused on and I'm happy that it's going in now.”

Toews cut it to 4-1 at 5:38, tipping Elias Salomonsson’s point shot on the power play.

“He's hungry with that,” Salomonsson said. “After every practice, (Toews) stands in front of there and tips. (I’m) not surprised he’s there and tipping in.”

Fraser Minten extended the lead to 5-1 at 15:52. Pastrnak skated out from behind the net, spun around and fired a cross-crease pass to Minten, who jammed the puck in near the left post.

Aspirot then scored at 18:18 for the 6-1 final.

NOTES: The Bruins improved to 26-9-1 at home this season and have the most home wins in the NHL. … Pastrnak scored his 87th game-opening goal, which is the most among all players since he entered the NHL in 2014-15. He also surpassed Patrick Kane (86) for the fifth most among active players, behind Alex Ovechkin (154), Sidney Crosby (127), Steven Stamkos (97) and Brad Marchand (88). … Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy had an eight-game point streak end (four goals, six assists). … Toews has scored in back-to-back games. Four of his nine goals this season have come on the power play.