In Boston, Columbus’ Boone Jenner scored at 16:25 of the middle frame to give the Blue Jackets a 1-0 lead over the Bruins on Sunday night.
The problem for the Blue Jackets was Boston’s Brad Marchand who scored a natural hat trick in a 3-1 win for the Bruins.
“We’re so confident in this group going into third periods,” Marchand said. “We’ve shown that over the last couple years how we don’t quit, we play right to the end. We knew if we continued to play the way we were that we were going to at least get one [goal] and potentially more. We just had that belief again tonight that we could come back, and it’s great we did.”
The Bruins improved to 17-4-3.
Jeremy Swayman made 24 saves in the win.
“I thought we were trying to be either too cute offensively, and we thought we had options,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said. “I think we did a better job of [having] the first defenseman that got the puck shooting it with two men inside … and trying to look for some garbage goals. We ended up with pretty goals, but I thought the first five minutes set the tone for that.”
Columbus dropped to 8-14-4.
“I think we got to use [that momentum],” Jenner said. “We came in, felt good about our game after two [periods], and that’s [where] we want to come out. Be on our toes, get to our forecheck right away, and we weren’t able to.”
All three Marchand goals were scored in the third period.
Marchand started his outburst at 1:56 of the third period to tie the game, 1-1.
At 5:37, he put the Bruins ahead 2-1.
“It’s a big response, especially losing to these guys last time [5-2 on Nov. 27] on the back-to-back,” Swayman said. “I think it was really special for us to get our legs early and stay on top of them all three periods, and I just think morale is going to be in a good place moving forward, and I think we left it all out there.”
His third, for the hat trick, came off the power play at 7:46 for the 3-1 final count.
Spencer Martin made 25 saves in the loss.
“I was feeding off my teammates,” Martin said. “You see plays like [defenseman Erik] Gudbranson diving across the line at the end of the second period, and it wasn’t just that one, it was all night. I feel like I’ve been in some games that feel like a similar story where you’re just so close and it’s frustrating, but I’m going to stick with it.”
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