NHL Update: Boston Bruins squashed the New York Islanders, 6 to 3 (fixed headline)
Tyler Seguin and Blake Wheeler each scored a goal in the final period to help Boston Bruins for a 6-3 victory over New York Islanders, at Nassau Memorial Coliseum on Thursday night.
Milan Lucic and David Krejci both also lit the lamp for Boston, which started a six-game road trip by finishing a three-game slide.
Mark Recchi and Gregory Campbell each also notched a goal to earn the victory for Boston, which has downed New York Islanders in both meetings this season and in 10 of its previous 12 games. Tuukka Rask made 34 saves in the win.
John Tavares found the net twice and Josh Bailey netted a goal for New York, which had a four-game win streak halted.
Nate Lawson was benched after giving up five goals on 18 shots to suffer the defeat in just his eighth career contest. He was replaced by Al Montoya, who surrendered a lone goal on 16 shots after taking over in the middle frame.
Boston got the scoring started for 1-0 lead almost two minutes into the game. It happened so when Seguin chased down a loose puck and dished it to Wheeler, who fired a low backhander past Lawson from below the left circle.
Boston doubled up its advantage, 2-0, just seven minutes into the opening period. The goal came when Patrice Bergeron slipped a backhand saucer pass to Recchi that was knocked down by New York’s defenseman Bruno Gervais and went in off Recchi's skate as he was rushing through the top of the crease. The goal was Bruno Gervais confirmed after a video review.
Bruins pushed their lead to 3-0 only two minutes later, as Campbell intercepted Islanders' clearing effort and ripped a wrist shot from the right point into the net.
"When you get down three goals against Bruins, your chances of coming back are not very good," Tavares said. "We came out slow, we didn't play our game and we weren't moving our feet. If we keep that mentality with all the shots we had in the last two periods, we're going to keep scoring goals. We just have to be better in our own zone."
Krecji staked Bruins to a 4-0 lead just 55 seconds into the second period, as he grabbed a rebound of his own shot and blasted a backhander past Lawson.
"You don't want to play the score, you just try to focus on your game and stopping every puck. At the end of the day, you just want to stop every puck, no matter what."Rask said of being staked to such a huge advantage.
Finally, Islanders got on the board to make it 4-1 game on Tavares’ wrist shot just 55 seconds later, but any momentum from that goal was crushed when Seguin hammered a shot into the net for 5-1 lead a minute later. Lawson was then pulled in favour of Montoya.
Bailey drew New York within a goal to make it 5-2 game just under three minutes later ,but the four-goal edge, 6-2, was rebuilt when Lucic banged a shot past Lawson on the power play just two minutes later.
New York cut its deficit to three again when Tavares got a rebound and backhanded it past Rask with seven minutes remaining in the game.
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