BOSTON — The Bruins did not play a perfect game on Saturday. If they did, they might have scored 15 goals against the rebuilding/tanking Chicago Blackhawks. But that might be the only nit to pick in the Bruins' dizzying performance in their 6-1 victory at TD Garden.
So, they did not connect on everything, but the Bruins fired more than enough pucks behind a beleaguered Petr Mrazek to capture their 11th victory in as many tries at the Garden, tying an NHL record.
The Bruins, who held a 43-18 shot advantage, equaled the 1963-64 Blackhawks (these Hawks are nothing like those Hawks) and last season's Florida Panthers for the most home wins without a loss to start a season. If they want to set a new mark, it’s a good bet they’ll face a stiffer test. After two games in Florida on Monday (the Lightning) and Wednesday (the Panthers), the Bruins can set the record when they face the Carolina Hurricanes in the traditional Black Friday game later this week.
David Pastrnak led the Bruins with a pair of goals (10, 11) and Brad Marchand had three assists in a game that was not in doubt from the opening minutes, even though the Bruins didn’t pull away until late in the second.
The Bruins had gotten into the habit in recent games of meandering into the first period, but that was not the case on Saturday. The played on their toes from the drop of the puck and utterly dominated, outshooting the Blackhawks 15-3 — and that count was not even indicative of how much the Bruins over-matched Chicago.
But the Bruins could manage only one measly goal, a power-play tally from Pastrnak. After Marchand drew the first penalty of the game, he gathered a bouncing puck on the left wing and wired a pass to Pastrnak on the right side for the 1-0 lead at 4:53.
The sniper took five shots in the period, four of which landed on net. He was robbed by Mrazek after Taylor Hall made a terrific rush and dished to Pastrnak on the right wing.
The Bruins had to kill off a good chunk of a penalty to start the second period after Connor Clifton took umbrage with a late-ish Colin Blackwell hit on Patrice Bergeron late in the first. They did so without much of a problem and then went back on the attack.
They doubled the lead at 4:28 on a Bergeron goal that finished off a Sweet Georgia Brown shift, as the captain finally converted a Charlie McAvoy pass into a half-empty net for his ninth goal of the season and 999th career point.
But the Bruins couldn’t put it on cruise control just yet. The Blackhawks halved the lead at 10:37 after Brandon Carlo was sent off when he diving play to break up a Hawk attack ended up in a tripping call. On the man advantage, Jonathan Toews tipped a Max Domi blue line shot past Jeremy Swayman and, somehow, the Blackhawks were just one shot away from tying the game.
Much like the first period, the Bruins stormed the Chicago zone but just missed on a handful of chances. But they finally delivered the knockout punch with two goals in 1:08 late in the period.
The Bruins pushed it back to a two-goal lead with another power-play goal after Toews had to haul down Hall in front of the net. On the advantage, Marchand found Jake DeBrusk at the top of the crease for a redirect, DeBrusk’s seventh of the season.
Then, with 42 seconds left in the period, a tic-tac-toe play went from Charlie McAvoy to A.J. Greer to David Krejci, who stepped into a slapper to whistle it past Mrazek.
The Bruins were every bit as dominant in the second as they were in the first, outshooting Chicago 15-5.
Pastrnak scored his second of the game in the third when he was the beneficiary of a beautiful Nick Foligno feed on a 2-on-1. Hall then scored a late tally to finish it off on the scoreboard, though the Blackhawks were done long before that.
