The Boston Bruins, as you’ve come to know and love them this season, are back.
The B’s delivered an early knockout punch to the Buffalo Sabres on Sunday at KeyBank center and cruised to a 7-0 victory, their third straight to clinch a winning record on their five-game road trip after dropping the first two to lesser opponents in Detroit and Chicago.
The B’s got goals from members of all four forward lines and two defensemen for a well-rounded thumping of the Sabres, who are revealing themselves to be playoff pretenders once again.
Jeremy Swayman notched his second consecutive shutout and fourth of the season with 27 stops.
With the end of the regular season in sight and coming off a big win in Minnesota on Saturday, the B’s gave a couple of their big guns, Dmitry Zboril and David Krejci, the day off, though coach Jim Montgomery said the centerman was dealing with some wear and tear.
While the rest mode may have signaled to some teams that this game didn’t matter, the B’s immediately wiped out any notion of a scheduled loss.
They jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period, with Patrice Bergeron scoring just 15 seconds into the game. The captain notched his 26th of the year after Brad Marchand’s wraparound attempt squirted into the slot and he rifled it past a helpless Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.
Garnet Hathaway doubled the lead with his second goal as a Bruin when he chipped Jakub Zboril’s long pass past a Buffalo defender at the Sabre blue line to create a break for himself and beat Luukkonen with a shortside wrister from the right circle at 9:01. In just his third game since November 23, Zboril notched his first point since Nov. 12.
The B’s extended the lead on a 4-on-4 at 11:40 when Charlie Coyle made a pretty backhand opass to Jake DeBrusk at the side of the net for DeBrusk’s 22nd of the year and the B’s were on their way.
As well as the B’s were playing, Jeremy Swayman — coming off a shutout win in Winnipeg — still had to be good, turning aside 11 shots, including a wide open chance for Jack Quinn at the end of the Sabres’ power play.
The B’s kept up the pressure in the second period.
After Tyler Bertuzzi was denied his first goal as a Bruin because video review showed he kicked the puck in, Hampus Lindholm pushed the lead to 4-0 at 7:48. After some nice defensive coverage, Bergeron sent DeBrusk off for a long skate. The speedy wing circled behind the net and fed Lindholm for a pretty roof job.
With showing few signs of push-back, Dylan Cozens decided to drop the gloves with Trent Frederic. Getting the early jump, Cozens landed several punches while Frederic was getting his positioning right. Once Frederic started throwing, he made quick work of Cozens, who was saved by the linesmen after Frederic rocked him with a right.
They could have ended the game right there, too, for all the Sabres had to offer.
In the third, David Pastrnal matched his career- high with his 48th goal, one the power-play, before Coyle (13) and Charlie McAvoy (6) finished off the rout.
