Patrice Bergeron scored his third goal in two days and the Boston Bruins won their fourth straight game, beating the visiting Vancouver Canucks 5-2 on Sunday night.
Brad Marchand got his fifth goal in just eight games this season, Connor Clifton and Pavel Zacha also scored and Tomas Nosek added an empty-net goal with 1:58 remaining for Boston. The Bruins have won 11 of 12 and are 14-2-0.
Hampus Lindholm had three assists and David Pastrnak had a pair of assists, setting up Bergeron and Marchand for one-timers as the Bruins top line led the way.
J.T. Miller scored his second goal in as many games and Sheldon Dries also scored for Vancouver, which lost its third straight. Thatcher Demko stopped 27 shots for Vancouver, which fell to 1-3 on a five-game road trip.
In addition to his assists, Pastrnak drew a pair of tripping penalties from the Canucks. Late in the first period, he wound up for a slap shot, then slipped the puck to Bergeron in the slot for a tip-in that put Boston up 2-1. Bergeron scored twice Saturday night in a 3-1 win at Buffalo.
After a give-and-go by Lindholm and Zacha put the Bruins up 3-1, Pastrnak set up Marchand with a crossing pass late in the second for Marchand’s fifth goal since returning from offseason hip surgery.
The Bruins were up 4-1 until Dries scored with a shot from the side of the net made it in 4:34 into the third. Only two seconds remained on a high-sticking penalty to Boston’s Jakub Zboril when the Canucks picked up their second power-play goal of the game. Entering Sunday, the Bruins had killed 12 straight penalties over the previous three games.
Boston’s streak came to an end 9:05 into the first when Miller beat goaltender Linus Ullmark on a breakaway. The Canucks were up a skater as Tomas Nosek served an instigator penalty after a fight with Kyle Burroughs, who had just leveled Pastrnak with a hard hit.
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The fight didn’t last long and tensions continued to build. A.J. Greer laid out Vancouver’s Vasily Podkolzin with a hit at centre ice, then both started swinging. Greer landed several clean shots to Podkolzin’s face, which was bleeding as he was led back to the bench to the cheers of Bruins fans.
UP NEXT
Canucks: Visit the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday night in the last of five straight games on the road.
Bruins: Host the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
