Bruins 6, Sharks 3

 

He's back! The slashing, crashing, smashing defenseman, Charlie McAvoy (BU, 2016), has returned to the ice after serving his six-game suspension for kicking the Buffalo Sabres' Zach Benson's ass, and scored his first goal of the season last night in San Jose late in the first period. The Bruins won the game, 6-3.

Obviously, it wasn't all McAvoy. Fraser Minton scored the first goal of the game and then scored again in the third, and now leads the Bruins in goals made at four. Matthew Poitras and Pavel Zacha scored in the second period, and William Borgen hit an empty-netter late in the match. Morgan Geekie made two assists in the second, his fourth and fifth of the season, and Pastrnak made his sixth assist that same period and leads the Bruins in points at eight. Jeremy Swayman made 35 saves for a .921 average. 

The Sharks' Macklin Celebrini (BU, 2024) scored a power-play goal in the third period, his second goal of the season, and also made his sixth assist of the year during another power play in the second. 

Last night's win finally put the Bruins (5-2-0) into first place in the Atlantic Division with ten points. Ottawa has ten as well and both teams have played the same number of games, but Boston is 1-0 against the Senators and therefore leads in the standings.

Friday night, the Bruins play A.J. Greer (BU, 2015) and the Anaheim Ducks (4-2-0). Sadly, the Ducks aren't a very good team. They've averaged 2.90 goals per game, 15th of 32 in the NHL, while the Bruins have allowed only 2.18 per game, third in the NHL. Mid-level offense versus elite D, now turbocharged by McAvoy's return. 

Puck drops at 10:00.