Marchand scores 400th NHL goal, Bruins top Hurricanes for 3rd win in row

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Brad Marchand scored his 400th NHL goal, and the Boston Bruins defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 4-1 at PNC Arena on Thursday.

The Bruins' captain became the fifth player in franchise history to reach the mark, joining Johnny Bucyk (545), Phil Esposito (459), Patrice Bergeron (427) and Rick Middleton (402).

Marchand had gone 10 games without a goal.

“Lately, I tried not to think about it. Obviously, it was kind of an elephant in the room, (so) nice to get it,” Marchand said. “It’s nice that we had a really good game to follow it up. I try not to think about things that I’ve done while I’m still playing. There’s much larger goals, and hopefully there’s still plenty more. I’ll reminisce at the end.”

David Pastrnak and Danton Heinen each had a goal and an assist, and Pavel Zacha had two assists for the Bruins (45-17-15), who have won three in a row and four of their past five. Jeremy Swayman made 28 saves.

“I’m really pleased with tonight’s win,” Boston coach Jim Montgomery said. “In the first period, we executed really well. We caught them on some odd-man rushes and made some high-end plays, led by our captain.”

Boston remained four points ahead of the Florida Panthers for first place in the Atlantic Division with five games remaining. The Panthers defeated the Ottawa Senators 6-0 on Thursday.

Jake Guentzel scored for the Hurricanes (47-22-7), who had won two in a row and eight of their past 10. Frederik Andersen made 24 saves.

Carolina remained five points behind the New York Rangers for first place in the Metropolitan Division with six games remaining.

Carolina was coming off a four-day break following a 3-0 win at the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday.

“We were sluggish to start. We weren’t ready for that pace,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “I think that’s on me. The way we took these last four days was more mentally getting away. We weren’t ready to get to it.”

Marchand gave Boston a 1-0 lead at 2:12 of the first period. He took a stretch pass from Morgan Geekie through the middle of the ice and tucked a backhand through Andersen five-hole.

Pastrnak extended it to 2-0 at 7:42 when he skated in from the left side boards near the goal line and roofed the puck short side. It was his 47th goal of the season.

“I got it on the boards and I was looking at what’s open,” Pastrnak said. “(Then) I was going towards the net, and I saw an open line. So, I tried to make a quick move to the forehand to move Andersen to the far side, and it worked out perfectly.”

Heinen pushed it to 3-0 at 10:46 on a redirection from the right circle after Pastrnak whipped a pass to him around Hurricanes forward Seth Jarvis.

Guentzel cut it to 3-1 at 15:12 of the second period during a 5-on-3, batting the puck over Swayman near the right post.

Swayman was not heavily tested but he stopped 12 shots in the second period, including a netfront redirect by Guentzel with 1:18 remaining.

“The guys in front of me are doing a great job of boxing out and allowing me to see the first shot,” Swayman said. “And I’m just trying to do my job with putting rebounds in good areas.”

Hampus Lindholm scored an empty-net goal at 17:49 of the third period for the 4-1 final.

NOTES: Zacha extended his point and assist streaks to five games (two goals, six assists). … The Hurricanes were 4-for-4 on the penalty kill and have held opponents without a power-play goal in 14 of their past 15 games. … Andersen played his 100th game with the Hurricanes. He is 67-27-4.