SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — David Pastrnak scored twice as the Boston Bruins beat the San Jose Sharks 4-2 on Saturday night.
Brad Marchand had a goal and two assists, and Craig Smith also scored for the Bruins. Linus Ullmark made 26 saves for his 22nd win this season.
“When you have great depth like we have, you’re able to move people around, especially when people are on top of their games to give our team an added spark,” Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery said.
Logan Couture and Mario Ferraro scored for the Sharks, and James Reimer made 25 saves. Erik Karlsson was held off the scoresheet, ending the veteran defenseman’s 14-game point streak.
“We’re going in the right direction. And the level of frustration can get very high when you lose the way we have this season,” Sharks coach David Quinn said. “It’s a frustrating situation because we’ve done a lot of good things, but at the end of the day, it’s about winning and losing.”
Marchand’s goal came just one minute into the game as the forward skated through three Sharks defenders en route to a highlight-reel backhand goal. Marchand extended his point streak to five games.
“Those don’t come often. They’re fun when they do. I was gonna dump it, and then he was kind of cheating the dump a little bit, and (I) got inside, and then I put it on net, and it went in. Like I said, it’s fun when those ones come your way,” Marchand said.
Sharks defensemen Matt Benning, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, and forward Alexander Barabanov extended their point streak to four games, with all three players getting an assist tonight.
“We’ve lost too many games here in the last couple of years, and it’s tough, but all we can do is just move forward,” Couture said. “Tonight, we played a very good team pretty close all night, and it could have gone either way there for a while. So we’ll take the positives, have a day off tomorrow, and get back to work on Monday.”
3RD ALL-TIME:
Bruins captain Patrice Bergeron passed Phil Esposito for third all-time in points by a Bruins player with an assist on Marchand’s goal. Bergeron has 1,014 career points after he added a second assist on Pastrnak’s second goal.
“I mean, it’s very special,” Bergeron said. “When you look at the guys that are up there, you know, legends of the game, people that I have a lot of respect for, and they’ve had a tremendous impact on the organization. But also the in the league itself.”
UP NEXT
Bruins: At Anaheim on Sunday night.
Sharks: At Arizona on Tuesday night.
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