BOSTON -- Jaroslav Halak wanted to bounce back after his worst game in a Bruins uniform, and clearly he also wanted to step up with Tuukka Rask currently away on a leave of absence.
The veteran goalie checked both of those boxes, making 40 saves in an important 5-1 bounce-back win for the Bruins over the Maple Leafs at TD Garden on Saturday night. It was up to Halak early in the game when Toronto threw everything they had at the Bruins, and outshot the B’s by a 20-6 margin in the opening 20 minutes.
But Halak kept the Leafs off the board in that first period, while standing tall and making a series of strong saves. That allowed the Bruins to get their legs and score at the end of the first. That was something greatly appreciated by the rest of the Bruins, because it paved the way for a David Pastrnak hat trick that headlined another five goal effort by Boston’s offense.
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“They throw everything on net even though it’s from corners and even bad angle shots, and then they get some traffic there. That’s how you get to 20 shots in one period,” said Patrice Bergeron. “So yeah, [Halak] was amazing. He kept us in the game.
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“I kept saying that but we needed a bounce back from everyone and [Halak] is definitely one of those guys that you can tell he was ready for that game and he was terrific.”
It was downhill after that for Halak and the Bruins, but they held firm aside from one goal allowed toward the end of the second period.
“I think team-wise, individual-wise, we wanted to just come out and play our game. Obviously we took that penalty at the beginning and they kind of got into the game,” said Halak. “They had a good start. You have to give them credit, but I think we bounced back and the second and third period I think we played really well.
“Obviously we didn’t get a lot of shots in the first period but I think we had some good chances, we scored the goal. I think our power play was good tonight.”
Now it looks like Halak is going to get the call on Sunday night against the Golden Knights as well in the second half of the back-to-back, and he’ll be able to continue distancing himself from the five goals allowed in an ugly Vancouver loss. There’s a lot of mystery as to what’s going to happen after that for Halak and the Bruins based on the length of Rask’s leave of absence from the team, and just how much they want to ride Halak while a totally inexperienced youngster like goalie prospect Daniel Vladar is backing him up right now.
But this weekend is all about Halak, and he was more than equal to the task in an important divisional win against the rival Maple Leafs in one of the bigger games of this season to date.
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