David Pastrnak intercepted an Islanders pass in the neutral zone, glided into the offensive zone, cut to the middle and sent a wrister on goal, beating goalie Ilya Sorokin blocker side.
The goal gave the Bruins their first two-goal lead of the night, and was an insurance goal in an eventual 5-2 victory at TD Garden Saturday night, the first in their second-round best-of-seven series with the New York Islanders.
The goal was also Pastrnak’s third of the game.
But let’s rewind this story a bit, all the way to the first three games of the Bruins round-one series with the Washington Capitals where it felt like something was missing from Pastrnak’s game.
Too often through the early stages of round one, Pastrnak would miss just wide on an open net, or not get enough stick on a one-timer through the slot.
All signs that something indeed was missing from his game.
But like superstars do, and like goal scorers do, Pastrnak found what was missing, putting the missing puzzle piece back in its rightful spot.
And boy, what a difference it’s made.
“Obviously he’s feeling it. Broke through in Washington late, had plenty of opportunities, that was the good news—only a matter of time, that lines really humming,” said head coach Bruce Cassidy.
“Right now he’s going, goal scorers get hot sometimes, he had a spell there where it didn’t work out for him, particularly on the power play. Now, he’s finding some ice and his shot is going in. Good for him, that’s what we need as a team for our goal scorers to score.”
After failing to score in his first three playoff games, Pastrnak now has five goals in his last three games.
Any time Pastrnak jumped over the boards in Game 1 against the Islanders, he did what he wanted when he wanted and there was not a single thing the Islanders could do about it.
In Pastrnak’s 16:24 of ice time in Game 1, the Bruins held the advantage in:
Shot attempts: 30-8
Shots on goal: 22-4
Scoring chances: 20-4
High-danger scoring chances: 6-2
Goals 3-0
All of this coming in front of 17,400 fans, the most TD Garden has seen since March 2020.
“That was a lot of fun, outstanding to have the fans back. You could feel the energy this morning,” said Pastrnak. “In warmup, it felt like 22 players playing their first NHL game, everybody looking around at so many people. Different game with the fans, obviously a lot of fun today.”
All-in-all, the Islanders had no answers for David Pastrnak and for that matter, the Patrice Bergeron line as a whole.
“Keeping ‘em off the scoreboard,” Islanders head coach Barry Trotz said when asked what his team didn’t do against the Bergeron line. “We’ve got to challenge them a little bit more, we backed off. They make plays through you. We got to tighten up there.”
When the Bergeron line was on the ice, it felt like they had the puck on a string. The puck cycling beauty was on display. Just another all-around dominating performance from the Bruins top line.
Whatever was keeping Pastrnak's shots out of the net through three round-one games has vanquished. And now, with Pastrnak back to being you know, Pastrnak, the Bruins are reaping the benefits.
Boston Bruins Blogger • 
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