In Newark, Brad Marchand hit for two goals for the Boston Bruins in a 5-2 win over the New Jersey Devils on Saturday afternoon.
The Bruins held a slim one-goal lead heading to the final period, but Patrice Bergeron and Jake DeBrusk (empty net goal)Â scored in the frame to give Boston the breathing room and final score.
“We push each other, constantly,” Marchand said. “Even tonight, we had a pretty good game, but there’s still times where we were getting on each other for needing to be better in situations.
“Obviously, we have a lot of fun out there and our chemistry has come a long way where we can just kind of read off each other, but we’re not light on each other either. I love that we want to hold each other to a high accountability and every night we expect to be good.”
Jeremy Swayman made 27 saves for the Bruins win.
“It’s the best feeling ever when you can do your part and you see guys doing theirs,” Swayman said. “It’s a great feeling and obviously brings momentum in our side, so I was really happy with that. Good for [Marchand]; he had a great game.”
Dawson Mercer and Jesper Bratt were the New Jersey goal scorers.
“They probably blocked a lot of shots (25), but when you don’t get inside, it allows them to turn [to] the puck and we didn’t shoot pucks quick enough,” New Jersey head coach Lindy Ruff said. “The result was we spent too much time outside the (face-off) dot.”
Boston improved to 7-5-0.
“A majority of the goals scored in the NHL is around the net, and we have to do a little bit better job of getting there by funneling pucks to the net when you don’t have anything,” Marchand said. “When we start to do that, we create more opportunities. We got a couple of goals off rebounds; it’s something that we need to continue to build into our game.”
Boston’s Erik Haula scored in the first period for a 1-0 lead to the Bruins.
“It felt good (to get the first goal),” Haula said. “Definitely could have had a few already, so it’s a good feeling when the first one goes in and you can forget about that one and start thinking about the second one.”
New Jersey dropped to 7-4-2.
“I have a lot of respect for the way [Marchand, Bergeron and Pastrnak] play,” Ruff said. “They are the typical guys you wish you had on your team. We know that to win, you’ve got to do your part to make sure you limit them.”
Jonathan Bernier made 31 saves in the New Jersey loss.
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