The Boston Bruins scored three goals in a 54-second span midway through the first period and held on for a 4-3 win over the visiting Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday night.
Charlie McAvoy, Elias Lindholm (one goal, one assist) and Tanner Jeannot scored Boston’s fastest three goals since 2001 before the lead reached 4-0 after David Pastrnak’s eventual game-winner in the second period.
Pastrnak led the Bruins with a goal and two assists. Morgan Geekie dished out two helpers.
Joonas Korpisalo made 29 saves for Boston, which has won seven of eight overall and six in a row at home.
Jack Eichel had a goal and an assist, Tomas Hertl and Pavel Dorofeyev also scored and Akira Schmid stopped 24 shots for Vegas, which has lost back-to-back games since a seven-game win streak.
The Golden Knights had just 12 shots through two periods, but finished a 32-28 advantage following a 20-5 onslaught in the third.
After Korpisalo’s first of two point-blank denials on Ivan Barbashev helped an early penalty kill, the Bruins took full advantage of Hertl’s high-sticking infraction by scoring twice on the ensuing four-minute power play.
McAvoy opened the scoring at 9:12 — just 11 seconds into the double minor — when he teed up Pastrnak’s pass back for a one-time goal from the top of the left circle.
Only 30 seconds later, the Bruins doubled up their lead. A great passing sequence between the top man-up unit led to the goal as Geekie found Pastrnak at the bottom of the right circle, where he dished across to Lindholm to slot home from the front.
After the game returned to even strength, Jeannot took Sean Kuraly’s feed down the wing for a top-shelf finish to make it a 3-0 game at the 10:06 mark.
Schmid kept the Vegas deficit at three with a close-range save on Pavel Zacha in the final minute of the opening frame, but the hosts continued to build their lead with Pastrnak scoring himself at 7:25 of the second.
Nikita Zadorov tracked Pastrnak’s pass into space and worked by his defender along the wing before dishing a backhand feed to Pastrnak to blast home Boston’s fourth goal.
Two Massachusetts natives connected to mark the scoreboard for Vegas 31 seconds into the third. Noah Hanifin walked down the left wing and threaded the puck to the net front for Eichel to bang past Korpisalo.
The Golden Knights’ power play converted to cut their deficit to 4-2 at 3:01, as Hertl one-timed Mark Stone’s quick backhand feed around the crease.
Dorofeyev scored an extra-attacker goal to bring Vegas within one with 2:35 left, throwing a puck to the net front that deflected through Korpisalo’s five-hole.
–Field Level Media
