Tuukka Returns and Winners of Season Best, Six-In-A-Row

The Bruins aimed to continue their winning ways against the New York Islanders in the second game of the two-game series Friday night, March 16th. Jeremy Swayman gets the start, making it his fifth of the season. The first period seems to be a bit of a seesaw affair as both teams strive for the aggressive play that we saw in the first game of the series, but we are reminded that both these teams played the previous night, with chances on either end of the ice. Pastrnak stuns the Islanders with 2.4 seconds left in the first period when he buries it down low on a chance from Mike Reilly for the 1-0 Bruins lead. In the first minute of the second period, after being denied moments before, Taylor Hall, on a tape-to-tape pass from David Krecji, makes it 2-0, matching his output total in 38 games with Buffalo in just three with the Bruins. Just over a minute remained in regulation with the goalie pulled when Chris Wagner forces a puck out of the Bruins' zone, which finds Curtis Lazar for the empty net tuck to seal Jeremy Swayman's first career NHL shutout, who was the real story of the game. Bruins win 3-0!

Reading high on the waves of their first three game-winning Street since early February, the Boston Bruins welcome in the divisional leading Washington Capitals with last weeks 8-1 thumping still fresh in the backs of their minds; the Bruins expect much different results with a retooled and much healthier team taking the ice. Bruins jump out to an early 2-0 lead in the first with scores by Bergeron, a short-handed effort, and then Krecji about two minutes later with a tip-in. TJ Oshie of the Washington Capitals makes it 2-1 on a backhand shot with less than ten seconds left in the period. Lack of mental awareness and execution proves costly in the second period when Connor Clifton commits two 4 minutes high-sticking major penalties that lead to the next two Capital goals, a 3-2 Washington lead. Play continues, and about 2 minutes pass, Charlie McAvoy chips his own pass into the corner where along the boards, he feeds it out front to Pastrnak, who finds Marchand, who buries it in close to tie the game three aside. The Bruins scorers each tack on an additional goal each, including the 700th point of Marchand's career, an empty-netter to seal the 6-3 victory.

The Western New York basement-dwelling Buffalo sabers welcome the Bruins to KeyBank Center to start a three-game set on Tuesday, April 20th. Matt Grezclyk returns to the lineup after missing five games with an upper-body injury. With just less than twelve minutes remaining in the first and after a fury of relentless play in the attacking zone, Marchand backhands in, his team-leading 24th goal on the season. Sometime later, with 6:36 left in the first period, Tukkaa Rask absolutely robs Dylan Couzens on a wide-open net chance, a spectacular save! Three minutes into the second period, there's a pile-up in the crease with a turbulence of activity, Clifton puts a puck on net that slowly squeaks and dribbles through Buffalo goaltender Dustin Tokarski's five holes that he ultimately pushes into the net with his own skate blade, 2-0 Bruins. After a plethora of penalties, rain down on Boston, including a 5-on-3 Buffalo advantage in the waning minutes of the game, the Bruins maintain composure and pull this one out. The Bruins did not bring their A-game, but they did bring their good enough to win against Buffalo game. The Bruins are capable of beating the wheels off this club, and I hate seeing them playing down to competition. Bruins win 2-0

The Bruins continued their trudge through Western New York and the second game of the series against the sabers in the second game of the series. Brad Marchand breaks the scoreless tie eight and a half minutes into the first when Bergeron finds him out front and promptly potts the rebound for the 1-0 Bruins score. Buffalo makes it a game with a little more than 5 minutes gone in the second when former bruin Andrews Bjork finds Rasmus Ristolinen, who beats Swayman to tie the game at 1. Fresh off the faceoff and in only his second game back, Matt Grezclyk scores a bomb from the blueline for the 2-1 Bruins lead. And the Bruins just put it on cruise control for the remainder of the game, scoring the next three unanswered goals with tallies by Pastrnak, Ritchie, and Krecji. The Bruins deliver a 5-1 knockout punch to Buffalo!