Third period onslaught leads Bruins to 10th win of season
BOSTON -- The Boston Bruins are a force right now. A force that seemingly cannot be stopped.
Boston picked up its seventh straight victory of the season on Thursday night, earning a 5-2 win over the Rangers in New York with a downright dominant third period. The Bruins erupted for four goals in the final frame, including three unanswered to propel the team to its league-best 10th win of the season.
The game was all square at 1-1 heading into the third, but Charlie Coyle and Boston's third line changed that in a hurry. Just 2:56 into the final period, Coyle buried a feed from Hampus Lindholm to put Boston on top, 2-1. The Rangers answered less than a minute later though, when Adam Fox beat Linus Ullmark to make it a 2-2 game.
That's when Boston's third line struck again. With Coyle, Nick Foligno, and Trent Frederic back on the ice, defenseman Connor Clifton sent a wrister toward Rangers netminder Igor Shesterkin. Foligno tracked down the puck after the goalie kicked out the rebound, and he gave Frederic a nice back-hand feed. Frederic snapped a one-timer by Shesterkin to give the lead back to Boston, 3-2, at the 6:04 mark of the period.
That was the first of three unanswered goals in the frame for Boston. Jake DeBrusk played the role of insurance salesman, giving Boston a 4-2 cushion when he fired a one-timer from Pavel Zacha by Shesterkin with 9:41 to go in the game. Lindholm buried an empty netter with less than a minute to play to cap off the 5-2 victory for the Bruins.
That was more than enough for Ullmark, who made 18 saves as he improved to 8-0-0 on the season. He really didn't have to do too much in the third, as Boston was the aggressor in final frame, outshooting New York 17-4 over the final 20 minutes.
The Rangers are just the latest team to feel the wrath -- and sheer dominance -- from the Boston Bruins. The B's are now 4-1-0 on the road this season, and a sparkling 5-1-0 against Eastern Conference foes.
With Thursday night's win, the Bruins set a new franchise record too, needing just 11 games to get to the 10-win mark this season. Their only loss of the year was a 7-5 hiccup against the Senators in Ottawa two-and-a-half weeks ago.
Since then, it's just been win after win after win for the Bruins. They'll look to keep things rolling Saturday night in Toronto against the Maple Leafs.