Bruins ground Jets, 4-2

In Winnipeg, the Boston Bruins took a 2-0 lead into the third period, and watched as the Jets tied the game, 2-2.

Taylor Hall scored in the 16th minute of the period to give the Bruins a 3-2 lead.

Charlie McAvoy hit for a shorthanded strike to ice the game, 4-2, for the Bruins.

“You lose a game you want to come right back and redeem yourself and win,” Boston’s Charlie Coyle said. “That’s stuff we always talk about when we go down. We lose one, we’re chomping at the bit to come back and have a good game. And that’s what you need, especially during these later stages of the season and in the playoffs.”

Linus Ullmark made 27 saves in the Boston win.

“They came out hot, and you know there’s going to be a pushback from every team,” Ullmark said. “I really liked our response after that. We got our stuff together and we went forward, and our power play came up huge.”

Adam Lowry and Nikolaj Ehlers were the Jets strikers in the third period rally.

“That first period was OK coming off a day off,” Boston coach Bruce Cassidy said. “[Winnipeg] had good jump. We kind of battled back after a few early chances and we really found our footing in the second period. Then, obviously, the third was not perfect to start by any means. But again, we wanted to win and it showed.”

The Bruins moved to 38-19-5.

“We knew that they were going to come out in the second period and we knew that they were going to be a lot more direct,” Dave Lowry said. “They got pucks to the goal line and we spent a lot of time defending.”

Brad Marchand scored in the middle frame to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead.

“We did have our chances,” Ehlers said. “But getting a goal like that, where it’s 2-2, in an important game, that’s what you want.”

Winnipeg dropped to 28-24-10.

“It’s disappointing,” Winnipeg coach Dave Lowry said. “I notice that we battled. We battled to bring the game to even and those are the penalties that you would like to get the kill. Those are the penalties where you try and pick up a teammate.”

Boston’s Trent Frederic  pushed the lead to 2-0 with a second period goal.

“We had talked about getting to the interior against Winnipeg,” Cassidy said. “They have some smaller ‘D,’ a couple big ones, but some smaller ones, and statistically they don’t defend the slot that well for whatever reason. So get inside there, and Charlie [Coyle] started that. He got inside, even though he lost the puck he was heavy in there and [Frederic] kind of cleaned it up. That kind of got us going for those types of goals.”

Connor Hellebuyck made 41 saves in the Jets loss.