Saturday, March 5, 2022 07:00 PM (ET)

Bruins cap road trip by beating Blue Jackets in shootout

Field Level Media
Mar 5, 2022

David Pastrnak scored the only goal of the shootout to give the Boston Bruins a 5-4 win against the host Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday night.

Pastrnak began the third round of the tiebreaker by beating Columbus goalie Elvis Merzlikins with a wrist shot, and Boston's Jeremy Swayman stopped Jakub Voracek to give Boston a 5-1-0 record on its six-game trip. Jake DeBrusk, Erik Haula, Craig Smith and Patrice Bergeron scored in regulation for Boston, and Swayman made 20 saves before stopping all three attempts in the shootout.

Voracek forced overtime and earned the Blue Jackets a point when he scored a power-play goal with less than three seconds remaining in regulation. Columbus was skating 6-on-4 with Boston's Nick Foligno in the penalty box and Merzlikins on the bench in favor of an extra attacker.

Gustav Nyquist, Vladislav Gavrikov and Zach Werenski also scored goals, and Merzlikins made 28 saves for the Blue Jackets, who had to settle for a single point for the second straight game. They lost 4-3 in overtime to the Los Angeles Kings on Friday, a game that saw them fail to hold a 3-1 lead in the third period.

This time, they led 3-2 entering the third period, but Smith scored at 4:40 to tie it 3-3. Bergeron put Boston ahead 4-3 when he banged in a loose puck at 14:58 for a power-play goal after Oliver Bjorkstrand was penalized for high-sticking Pastrnak.

DeBrusk gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead at 10:39 of the first period when he tipped Brad Marchand's shot past Merzlikins. It was DeBrusk's 15th goal of the season and sixth on the road trip.

Nyquist tied it at 16:57 when he beat Swayman to the short side from the bottom of the right circle for his 14th of the season, and Gavrikov put Columbus ahead 2-1 when he knocked in a loose puck at 19:00 for his third.

Haula slid a shot past Merzlikins off the rush to tie the game 2-2 at 1:51 of the second period. Haula has three goals and eight points in his past six games. But Columbus regained the lead at 14:28 when Werenski scored on a power play to make it 3-2.

Swayman came in 6-0-1 in past seven starts with seven goals allowed and a .967 save percentage.

--Field Level Media

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