BOSTON – The Bruins talked about their aim of heading into the bye week on a high note, and then they went out and showed it by thoroughly humiliating the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday night.
Patrice Bergeron scored four goals for the first time in his legendary career with the Bruins and the Perfection Line (Marchand, Bergeron and Pastrnak) combined for five goals, 12 goals and a plus-11 in a 7-1 thrashing over the Hurricanes at TD Garden.
Appropriately enough it was Bergeron that got things rolling for the Bruins on a shorthanded strike little more than three minutes into the first period, and two minutes later Riley Nash beat Cam Ward to the same spot on his glove hand to make it 2-0.
Carolina yanked Cam Ward in favor of Scott Darling, but the Black and Gold beating continued with goals from David Pastrnak, Jake DeBrusk and Bergeron again in the first period. Bergeron capped off the hat trick when he finished off a Brad Marchand helper partway through the second period, and then made it a four-goal game later on in the second.
Bergeron became the first Bruins player to score four goals since Hall of Fame Dave Andreychuk did it during his brief stint with the B’s back in 1999. Now the Bruins head to Pittsburgh for a Sunday night showdown with the Penguins in their final game prior to getting five days off in the bye week for the Black and Gold.
The combo of Ward and Darling ended up allowing seven goals on 28 shots on net, and amazingly had surrendered five goals on the first seven shots they faced in a game where the Hurricanes had absolutely no chance at a win.