Bruins 5, Flyers 1

 

Do thy even play hockey anymore in Philadelphia? The Bruins romped their way to a 5-1 win in this old-school NHL rivalry game.

Pavel Zacha scored the only goal of the first period, his first of the season, assisted by David Pastrnak, his fifth. Mason Lohrei scored the only goal in the second, his second, assisted by JJ Peterka and Fraser Minten. In the third, Marat Khusnutdinov scored his first of the season assisted by Minten (second of the game and third of the season) and William Borgen. 

Then the weirdest thing happened.  Somehow, the Flyers found the back of the goal on a power play and it became a 3-1 game. Casey Mittelstadt wanted no part of that and scored his second goal of the season with assists by Elias Lindholm  and James Hagens. The then Minten, with two assists already under his belt, scored the fifth and final goal of the game, assisted by Peterka  and the other (Hampus) Lindholm.

Goalkeeper Jeremy Swayman made 14 saves for a .933 percentage.

Former BU Terrier Trevor Zegras (Class of 2020) wasn't much of a presence for the Flyers - no points in his 15:53 on ice, three giveaways, 1-1 on faceoffs, and a hit on Connor Clifton in the opening seconds of the game.

The Bruins improve to 3-2-0. Their six points are tied with Ottawa, Tampa Bay and Florida, but they're still being penalized for playing on the NHL's opening day and having one more game under their belt than their Atlantic Division rivals - the games-played tie-breaker is keeping them in fourth place.  

The Bruins are off on a West Coast road trip for the week. Their next game is Tuesday night (11:00 pm) in San Jose against Macklin Celibrini (BU, 2024) and the Sharks. It's not at all certain that the Bruins will face Macklin as hee suffered a lower-body injury and the Sharks are carefully managing his playing time, putting him in for only two games so far this season.