In Boston, David Pastrnak potted a hat trick for the Boston Bruins on Saturday night to help them take a 1-0 series lead off a 5-2 win over the New York Islander.
David Pastrnak had a hat trick for the Boston Bruins
“It seems like he rises to the occasion every time he’s asked to,” Boston’s Patrice Bergeron said. “I think he’s one of those guys [who] brings that energy, but also he loves to get the crowd going. It seems kind of fitting for him to have one of those nights with the fans back in the building.”
Tuukka Rask made 20 saves in the win.
Boston had 17,400 fans in the arena.
“It’s a different sport with them in the building,” Pastrnak said. “It definitely kind of warms your heart and kind of reminds you why you play this sport. It was awesome to have them back. Just coming on for warmups, it was so much fun. They [were] our seventh player all night. Really good job by them. I enjoyed it a lot.”
Game 2 of the series is back in Boston on Monday.
Obviously, he’s (Pastrnak) feeling it,” Boston head coach Bruce Cassidy said. “He broke through [against] Washington late, had plenty of opportunities, so that was the good news. It was only a matter of time. That line’s (Pastrnak, Bergeron and Brad Marchand) really humming.”
Charlie McAvaoy and Taylor Hall also scored for the Bruins.
“Anything can happen in the playoffs,” McAvoy said. ” … The smallest little thing can lead to huge shifts in the game. We had that penalty, and I think the overall mindset on our bench was, ‘Let’s kill this thing off and go back to work.’ I thought we were playing well before that happened. We were able to do that.
“Sure enough, you take sort of a nothing play, just a point shot, and it turns into a goal, and then [Pastrnak is] able to get us an insurance goal there with his skill, and we were able to get the job done.”
Adam Pelech and Anthony Beauvillier were the New York strikers.
“I think we’ve just got to stick to what we do best and our game plan and what brought us here,” Beauvillier said. “Obviously, they’re a really good team, and the further you’re going to go in the playoffs, the harder the games are going to get and the harder it will be to win.
“They obviously have a lot of firepower up front and, yeah, they’re good players and they want to score goals, and it’s going to be our job to defend better and obviously create more offense.”
The Bruins went 2-for-2 on the power play; New York scored once in three chances.
“We’re going to need more from our lines,” New York head coach Barry Trotz said. “I really felt that I only had really one line [that] was on top of their game. The other lines had spurts. Right through our whole lineup, we’re going to have to be much better.”
Ilya Sorokin made 35 saves in the loss.
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