COLUMBUS, Ohio -- It certainly didn’t start well for the Bruins, but they showed resiliency, a little fight and a line pieced together because of the Patrice Bergeron injury that thoroughly dominated the proceedings.
The forward line of Brad Marchand, David Backes and David Pastrnak absurdly accounted for all six of Boston’s goals on the evening, and allowed the Black and Gold to engineer a come-from-behind 6-3 win over the Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena. The game-winner was a thing of beauty midway through the third period with David Pastrnak freed for a partial breakaway while getting slashed by a Columbus Blue Jackets defender trailing the play.
Pastrnak still managed to squeeze off a good shot that caused a rebound, and the always clutch Brad Marchand fired it home for his first goal of the season for the game-winner. It was the high point in a five point, two-goal evening for the Bruins agitator, a two-goal night for Backes in his first go-round in a Bruins uniform and a statement game from 20-year-old Pastrnak that he’s ready to totally bust out this season.
The Bruins started off slowly in the first period with a soft goal allowed by Tuukka Rask on a Alexander Wennberg wrist shot from just inside the blue line, and then a power play strike from Cam Atkinson as Brandon Carlo scrambled to cut off the middle of the net-front area. The Bruins fought back in the second period with the Pastrnak score, but again sagged when Seth Jones fired home a goal after Carlo failed to clear the puck from the D-zone given a couple of tries at it.
The B’s veteran picked up the rookie in his NHL debut, however, and Backes scored the final two goals of the period camped out in front to tie things up leading to Marchand’s clutch heroics in the final 20 minutes of hockey.
Pastrnak iced the game in the closing minutes with an empty net goal after David Krejci dove to block a shot that hit him in the head area, and then the right wing sped off the other way for the empty net score.