Pastrnak scores hat trick, Bruins top Avalanche to push point streak to 7

BOSTON -- David Pastrnak scored a hat trick, and the Boston Bruins extended their point streak to seven games with a 5-2 win against the Colorado Avalanche at TD Garden on Thursday.

It was Pastrnak’s first hat trick of the season, and 16th in the NHL. He scored the second and third goals in the final 2:36 of the game.

“Coming into [the] third, we definitely turned things around [and] played more like [we did] in the first period, so that was huge,” Pastrnak said. “Obviously, we got the power-play [goal] late there and got the insurance goal, so I think that was huge. So overall, I think definitely the bounce back from the second to third, that’s what stands out to me.”

Jake DeBrusk had a goal and an assist, and Charlie Coyle had two assists for the Bruins (27-8-9), who won their third straight and are 4-0-3 in their past seven. Jeremy Swayman made 30 saves. 

“I don’t know if it’s a statement game,” Boston coach Jim Montgomery said. “I just like the way our game is building. You can see the confidence throughout the lineup with how we’re playing with the puck.”

Nathan MacKinnon and Miles Wood scored for the Avalanche (29-14-3), who had won eight of 10. Alexandar Georgiev made 26 saves.

“First period, it was obvious [Boston] had lots of jump,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “We just didn’t get going to win any races, to check the puck back, or kind of check it with their eyes and not with their legs, and they capitalized.”

Pastrnak gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead just 44 seconds into the first period. Coyle poked the puck away from Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar in the left face-off circle and Pastrnak picked it up, spun around and scored on a wrist shot.

Jakub Lauko made it 2-0 at 4:58, picking up Morgan Geekie’s wide shot and backhanding it into the open net with Georgiev drawn out of position. It was his first goal of the season in 32 games.

Wood cut it to 2-1 at 7:32, hitting the puck a few times from a tight angle to eventually slip it past Swayman.

“We got off to a pretty slow start obviously,” Colorado forward Logan O'Connor said. “All it takes against a good team is 10, 15, 20 minutes. We get down early and against a good team like that, away game for us, it’s always going to be tough to come back.”

DeBrusk pushed it to 3-1 at 14:52, deflecting Parker Wotherspoon’s point shot. Colorado challenged for offside on the play, but was unsuccessful.

MacKinnon cut it to 3-2 at 16:20 of the second period, poking the puck in after it slipped under Swayman’s leg. He extended his point streak to 10 games (five goals, 12 assists).

Pastrnak extended it to 4-2 at 17:24 of the third period on the power play after DeBrusk found him alone behind the defense.

“At that time I was in the slot, and I just wanted to threaten a shot,” DeBrusk said. “I knew ‘Pasta’ was there, so I tried not to stare at it and have them maybe defend it.”

Pastrnak completed the hat trick with an empty-net goal at 19:38 for the 5-2 final.

“We play with the lead a lot in the third period, so teams [are going to] come back,” Pastrnak said. “They’re [going to] get their push and they get their chances. … So good for us that we were able to finish the game and get the insurance goal today.”

NOTES: Makar had an assist to reach 299 points (75 goals, 224 assists) in his 279th NHL game. Another point Thursday would have matched him with Bruins legend Bobby Orr (279 games) as the fastest among defenseman to reach 300 points. ... MacKinnon is the first Avalanche player to have multiple double-digit point streaks in the same season since Joe Sakic in 2005-06 (13 games and 10 games). He had 36 points (13 goals, 23 assists) in a 19-game streak from Nov. 20 to Dec. 27. … In the regular season and playoffs combined, Pastrnak has scored a hat trick against 12 different franchises, joining Cam Neely (13) and Phil Esposito (12) as the only other players in Bruins history to record a hat trick against 12 or more different franchises. Among active players, only Alex Ovechkin (18), Sidney Crosby (13) and Evgeni Malkin (13) have done so. … DeBrusk scored his 10th goal of the season to put the Bruins up 3-1. Since making his NHL debut in 2017-18, only Pastrnak (269), Brad Marchand (199) and Patrice Bergeron (168) have more goals for the Bruins than DeBrusk (129).