The Boston Bruins scored four power-play goals to hand the Chicago Blackhawks a 7-4 loss in the first half of a home-and-home series Saturday at TD Garden in Boston.
The loss wasn’t the only disappointment for Chicago as it lost forward Anthony Duclair for 1-2 weeks with an apparent right leg injury after a collision with Boston’s Brad Marchand midway through the first period.
Marchand was sent to penalty box for a two-minute minor inference penalty, and Noel Acciari scored a short-handed goal for a 1-0 lead. David Krejci added his first of two power-play goals at 14 minutes, 10 seconds for a two-goal advantage.
But then Chicago started rolling, or rather defenseman Erik Gustafsson did.
One day removed from signing a two-year contract extension, Gustafsson had a goal and two primary assists for his first career three-point game. A mere 17 seconds (ha!) after Krejci’s goal, Gustafsson’s shot was deflected into the net by Jonathan Toews for his 19th goal of the season. Twenty-nine seconds later, it was Gustafsson’s blast that made it past Tuukka Rask to tie it 2-2.
John Hayden, who was called up on an emergency basis after fellow forward Vinnie Hinostroza left the team to attend to a family matter, gave the Hawks a 3-2 lead at 6:37 of the second. Hayden also scraped with Sean Kuraly only six minutes into the game, but failed to recorded an assist and fell short of posting a Gordie Howe hat trick.
Krejci tied it less than four minutes later after Hayden’s goal.
Rookie Matthew Highmore scored his first NHL goal and point from the right face-off circle to regain the lead less than five minutes into the third period.
David Pastrnak’s goal at 6:23 of the third started Boston’s four-goal run. With Patrick Kane in the penalty box for a high-sticking double minor, Brian Gionta knocked in a rebound and Rick Nash scored on a tip-in to swing the game back to Boston and Kuraly added an empty-netter.
Rask made 23 saves for the Bruins, who are six points back of Tampa Bay for the Atlantic Division lead. Jean-Francois Berube made 33 saves for Chicago. Boston also won its season-best sixth straight game and became only the seventh team in NHL history to sweep a six-game homestand.
The two teams meet again at 11:30 a.m. at the United Center in Chicago.
3 Stars
- David Krejci (BOS) – 2 power-play goals
2. Jake DeBrusk (BOS) – 3 primary assists
3. Erik Gustaffson (CHI) – 1 goal, 2 primary assists
Editor’s note: There are no photos from our photo system on Saturday’s game.