Ullmark Earns 100th Career Victory in B's Win Over Isles

ELMONT, N.Y. - Linus Ullmark knows just how special this season has been.
While his 25-save outing against the New York Islanders in the Bruins' 4-1 win at UBS Arena on Wednesday night was hardly his most dynamic performance of the year, it might have been one of the most meaningful.
"I got to share it with probably the most special group in this league so I couldn't be more happy," said Ullmark, who secured his 100th career victory.

The win was also the netminder's 24th of the season, as he improved to a league-best 24-2-1, while boasting NHL bests in goals against average (1.88) and save percentage (.937). Ullmark is now just three wins shy of eclipsing his career high of 26, which he set last season during his first campaign with the Black & Gold.
"It has been overwhelming. I'm not gonna lie," acknowledged Ullmark, who will represent the Bruins at next month's NHL All-Star Game in Florida. "It has been a different kind of a season definitely. It's taken a lot of me mentally to keep going, not be satisfied, because it's hard if you've had the luxury now for half of the season to be at this point.
"Usually, you're at this point at the end of the season. I have a lot of gratitude for all the boys in here that go to work every single night. Kudos to them."
Ullmark credited the Bruins' core leaders - Brad Marchand, who was standing nearby as he spoked to reporter, among them - for helping to keep him motivated day in and day out, despite his unprecedented success.
"We have a lot of guys on this team that have been around the league for a long time, and they know that you can't get satisfied because there's such small details that can make it crumble," said Ullmark.
Ullmark's highlight of the night was, perhaps, his spin-around pass during a Bruins' power play in the first period. With the Islanders' Zach Parise bearing down on a loose puck in the Boston end, Ullmark raced from his net to beat him to it, spun out of Parise's pursuit, and left a backhand feed for Charlie McAvoy.
"His hockey sense is unreal," said coach Jim Montgomery. "Most underrated part that I never hear people talk about is how well he plays the puck, his decision making. That takes a lot of poise. It shows just the amount of poise that he has along with a number of good saves he made tonight."
McAvoy said that Ullmark - and Jeremy Swayman, for that matter - have allowed the Bruins to play with comfort and ease, knowing how dependable the goalie tandem has been throughout the season.
"All year long [Ullmark's] been exceptional and he showed it again tonight," said McAvoy. "He's been truly our rock back there. Every night he gives us a chance to win. And then we just have to try to do the best job in front of him…you've got a lot of confidence going into any game knowing you've got him and Sway. Very fortunate."

A Scare for The Captain

Early in the third period, with Boston on the power play, the Bruins received quite the scare when Patrice Bergeron took a deflected David Pastrnak slapper square in the face. The puck appeared to catch Bergeron's visor but left him bloodied and forced to retreat to the dressing room with assistance from the Bruins' medical staff.
But, really to no one's surprise, Bergeron returned just moments later, blood splattered across his jersey and gauze stuffed up his nostrils, to finish the game.
"Really, I can't say enough words," said Montgomery. "We're up in the game, 3-1, and he knows that. He's back in the locker room and, still, he comes back out right away. Just a tremendous amount of respect for his pride wearing the Spoked-B. Hopefully all the X-rays will come back positive for us."
Montgomery added that he will leave it up to Bergeron when it comes to whether or not the centerman will suit up for the second end of the B's back-to-back on Thursday night against the Rangers.
"If he's healthy and everything's good, I'll let him make that decision," said Montgomery.
Boston's bench boss admitted that he was concerned the players might be preoccupied with the injury to their captain and become distracted. But the Bruins responded just seconds later with an insurance power-play marker as Pastrnak found Brad Marchand with a cross-ice feed, which No. 63 ripped by Semyon Varlamov to put Boston ahead, 3-1, at 5:03 of the third.
"I was actually fearful that our players would be concerned about our captain and not the task at hand," said Montgomery. "It's amazing - it's almost like they wanted to score for him."
Marchand, whose tally was his 15th of the season, was certainly not surprised to see Bergeron battling through.
"It was definitely a relief when he stepped back on the ice again. We were all nervous when he left," said Marchand. "He's gonna play through anything…it makes you want to go through a wall when you see a guy like that come back, who literally will play through anything and sacrifice any part of his body to win a game.
"It's a huge boost for the group, even late in a game like that. For him to come back…he doesn't have to. He could easily walk away from that and rest up for the next one, but it says a lot about his character and who he is as a player and a captain and that's why he is who he is."

A Hometown Show

McAvoy made the most of his latest homecoming on Wednesday night.
With a bevy of friends and family in the stands, the Long Beach, N.Y., native got the Bruins back on track when he hammered home a blast from the point at 7:48 of the second period to tie the game, 1-1.
"It was nice, it was fun," said McAvoy, who grew up some 30 minutes from UBS Arena. "It was an important goal in the game more than anything. Got us back into it and then we were able to kind of take over the pace from there."
McAvoy received a perfect pass from fellow blue liner Matt Grzelcyk, who sunk down from the point, picked up a loose puck below the goal line, and circled the net before firing a cross-ice feed through the slot. Grzelcyk extended his point streak to three games and now has six points (two goals, four assists) in his last five.
"Grizzy's been hot, he's been making plays…kept it going together. BU Terriers were at it," McAvoy said with a smirk.
"D making a pass from above the goal line, after circling [the net], to the D-man in the middle of the ice. That's really good balance," added Montgomery. "If one defenseman's down we want the other defenseman in the middle of the ice on the blue line and they found a hole and what a great shot by Charlie. He obviously likes playing in his hometown."
The tally was also the first of two goals for Boston's blue liners as Derek Forbort also got on the board just 3:12 later, giving the Bruins a 2-1 lead when he drifted down from the point and charged hard to the net to tap one home off the goal line after Pavel Zacha's shot rung off the post.
"Structurally, he's right we're he's supposed to be and he gets rewarded for it," said McAvoy. "As long as we keep doing what we're being told to do and keep learning and keep implementing it, it's paying off."
After totaling 14 goals over the first 36 games of the season, the B's defense corps has broken through a bit offensively of late, tallying five goals in the last five games (Grzelcyk, 2; McAvoy, 1; Forbort, 1; Hampus Lindholm, 1).
"It's really encouraging," said Montgomery. "A lot of it comes from how we want to play, the weak side D being very active. The Forbort goal's the best example of that. The other part is we want them to shoot more pucks and look at the net first because I think we have a lot of defensemen that see plays but they're looking to see plays more than they're looking to see net."

Capping It Off

Trent Frederic capped the B's stretch of four unanswered with 4:22 remaining when he finished off a Charlie Coyle feed from just above the crease to make it 4-1. The marker came after some strong board work from Craig Smith freed the puck to Frederic, who then found Coyle for a give-and-go as he tumbled to the ice.
The 24-year-old hit the double-digit goal mark for the first time with the tally and matched his career high of 18 points set last season.
"I don't know what the characteristic is. But I'm on the bench in the third period and I'm watching us ice the game and I'm like, 'Man, I'm really lucky to coach these guys because they're good,'" said Montgomery.
Marchand credited the team's veteran core for the B's dominant third-period performances so far this season.
"We're resilient, we're able to focus and do the job when we have to. Seems like we've found another level for that this year," he said. "A lot of that is because we have a lot of older guys who have a lot of experience and have been around for a while. There's something to that.
"I know a lot of teams want to go younger, but there is something to…you see a lot of playoff teams that make good runs and go far in playoffs, a lot of them are older and have a lot of veterans. I think that's something that the team tried to build around and we were able to buckle down like that.
"I believe that the older we are, the more guys know how to play in certain situations. We're deep, we're able to roll four lines all game…it's hard to keep up with when you're running there lines more than we are. Eventually we're gonna tire teams down and capitalize."