Korpisalo makes 28 saves, Bruins cruise to win against Flames

BOSTON -- Joonas Korpisalo made 28 saves for his first win since Dec. 11, and the Boston Bruins defeated the Calgary Flames 4-1 at TD Garden on Thursday.

It was Korpisalo’s first start since Dec. 27. He had lost two straight.

“It was fun to get back in there,” he said. “I haven’t played in a couple weeks, so it was fun and I tried to make the most of it. ... I’ve [sat out this long] before, so you just go out there and do your best. Obviously, try to enjoy the game and get some wins.”

Sean Kuraly had a goal and assist, and Tanner Jeannot had two assists for the Bruins (23-19-2), who have won three of their past four.

Connor Zary scored for the Flames (18-22-4), who have lost four straight games, including 4-1 at the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday. Dustin Wolf, in his eighth consecutive start, made 26 saves.

“It’s not ideal,” Calgary coach Ryan Huska said of Wolf’s recent workload with backup Devin Cooley being ill. “It’s not our intention, but sometimes situations arise and I thought he handled himself really well. He always gives us a chance, and I thought he competed and battled really hard.”

Kuraly gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead at 9:48 of the first period. Charlie McAvoy made a stretch pass to Jeannot, who controlled the puck along the right wall and banked a pass off the boards to Kuraly before the forward beat Wolf with a wrist shot from high in the right face-off circle to the stick side.

Elias Lindholm made it 2-0 at 12:06. The Bruins broke in on a 3-on-2 when Marat Khusnutdinov made a spinning drop pass in the right circle to David Pastrnak, who quickly fed Lindholm for a one-timer from the left circle.

Mason Lohrei increased the lead to 3-0 at 14:02 of the second period. He faked a slap shot from the top of the left circle, pulled it back with a toe drag past a sprawling Adam Klapka and scored with a wrist shot.

“When I went to take the slap shot, I read what [Klapka did] so [I] decided to pull up,” Lohrei said.

Korpisalo made eight saves in the second, including a glove save on Mikael Backlund from between the circles at 16:24.

“I’m very happy he kept us in the game. He was pretty solid, especially in the second period,” Boston coach Marco Sturm said. “I’m glad he had a good game.”

Casey Mittelstadt pushed the lead to 4-0 at 17:59, chipping a rebound over Wolf’s shoulder after his initial shot was blocked.

“I’m just doing what I can to try to help the team win,” Wolf said of his busy stretch. “I’ve made a couple mistakes the last couple of games that ended up in the back of our net. It can be frustrating. You want to be perfect in a sense because you’re playing for your teammates and trying to keep as many pucks out of your net. I just try to do my best, and a couple errors have cost me in a couple areas.”

Zary cut it to 4-1 at 18:44. He gained control of the puck behind Boston’s net, brought it out to the right circle and beat Korpisalo to the far side.

“I looked up and saw I had some open room, so just tried to take it to the net and make a little bit of a move, shoot it and it all worked out,” Zary said. “It’s nice to score, but when the game goes that way it doesn’t really mean much.”

The Bruins began a five-game homestand, playing at TD Garden for the first time since a 6-2 loss to the Canadiens on Dec. 23.

“We all played pretty well,” Korpisalo said. “The first period was awesome for us, the second period it slipped away a little bit, but we scored the goals today.”

NOTES: Flames forward Blake Coleman left the game at 4:03 of the third period for precautionary reasons. Huska said he didn’t think it was anything serious. “I don’t have anything right now,” he said regarding an update. “I think he’s probably just a little bit sore and not anything we wanted to push at that time.” … Pastrnak assisted on a game-winning goal for the 94th time in his career, tying Bobby Orr for the fourth most in Bruins history. The only others to assist on more game-winners are Ray Bourque (153), Patrice Bergeron (110) and David Krejci (97). … With his assist on Kuraly’s goal, McAvoy extended his point streak to four games (four assists).