If the Bruins really want to be taken seriously, they will have to prove themselves to be a harder out away from the Garden.
But on Causeway Street, they are about as good as anyone.
In their last home game until Feb. 26, the Bruins beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 6-3, on Thursday to sweep all nine home games in January and improve their home record to 21-8-1.
Fraser Minten and Casey Mittelstadt led the way with three-point nights (1-2-3 totals each) and Jeremy Swayman made 33 saves.
“We’re just sticking to what we do that gives us success,” said Tanner Jeannot of the home dominance. “That’s playing fast, getting pucks out of our zone quick and getting them behind their D and working around the O-zone. Guys have really been buying into that. We’ve been closing quickly in the D-zone to get the pucks out and guys have been executing. It’s really fun to watch and fun to play winning hockey.”
The only blemish on the night was the loss of Pavel Zacha to an upper-body injury, leaving the game with 6:55 left in the second period. There was no update on either Zacha or Elias Lindholm, who was also out with an upper-body injury.
With Lindholm already on the shelf, Minten was originally scheduled to play on the top line with David Pastrnak, who had his eight-game point streak snapped, and Morgan Geekie. But coach Marco Sturm changed his mind after morning skate, with maybe a little help.
“I had a good nap,” joked Sturm. “No, coming into the rink today, and also talking to David this morning and throwing out some different ideas and after my nap, I decided to to put Pav there (between Pastrnak and Geekie) and it worked out for both lines. But I thought it would be best for a game like today for David.”
Putting Minten with Viktor Arvidsson (one goal) and Mittelstadt sure worked out for all involved. The rookie now has 3-4-7 totals in his last six games and is plus-20 on the season.
“It’s really fun to watch,” said Jeannot, who was a Minten linemate earlier this season. “He’s growing and growing and just getting better and better every single day. I’m really excited to continue to watch him and I’m happy that he’s my teammate and I get to see it firsthand.”
The B’s will end their pre-Olympic portion of the schedule with two tough road games, starting with the Stadium Series tilt against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Raymond James Stadium on Sunday and then finish up with a game against the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers next Wednesday.
Thursday’s game never really felt in doubt. The B’s took an early 2-0 lead against the Flyers with two goals in 41 seconds midway through the first period and never looked back.
At 9:49, Arvidsson notched his 13th of the season when his one-timer off a Mittelstadt feed sneaked under goalie Samuel Ersson’s pads.
Then on the next shift, Zacha notched his 15th of the year when he took a quick feed from Morgan Geekie and went upstairs to beat Ersson, snapping a seven-game goal-less skid.
It appeared as though the Flyers had cut their deficit shortly after that. Christian Dvorak picked off a Jonathan Aspirot pass in the neutral zone and the Flyers immediately went on the attack. Swayman stopped the clean break-in from Nikita Grebenkin but Dvorak scored on the rebound.
But after coach Marco Sturm’s challenged for goalie interference, it was ruled that Grebenkin, who had his stick in between Swayman’s pads, impeded Swayman and the goal came off the board.
The B’s took a 3-0 lead at 2:27 of the second but then handed a goal right back.
First, Minten scored off the rush, benefiting from an Ersson softy when his wrister slipped under the goalie’s pads once again for the rookie’s 14th goal.
Less than a minute later, however, Sean Kuraly served up a pizza to Travis Konecny all alone in the slot. He had time and space and he wasn’t going to miss, beating Swayman under the glove.
At that point, the game was up and down with nary a whistle. Philly started to spend more time in the B’s zone while Ersson made a couple of good saves at the other end to keep the Flyers within striking distance.
But the B’s new second line picked up their third goal of the night at 16:12. After some excellent pressure, Ersson made a good stop on Andrew Peeke on a backdoor play, but Mittelstadt swooped in to lift a backhander into the top shelf to make it 4-1. It was Mittelstadt’s 11th of the season.
Just 2:28 later, Jeannot made it 5-1 with his sixth when he got in the way off a Peeke slapper and it beat Ersson.
Again, the B’s gave one back before the end of the period. Nikita Zadorov missed the net on a shot and it rimmed all the way around and out of the zone to give Konecny a clean breakaway. Swayman stopped Konecny but Grebenkin followed it up for the goal with 55 seconds left in the period.
But the B’s cruised in the third period until Marat Khusnutdinov (12) scored an empty-netter with 3:30 left before Matvei Michkov scored a late PP goal.
