A pair of goals from Brad Marchand and timely saves from Jeremy Swayman were enough to help the Bruins push their win streak to four games by way of a 3-2 final over the Sharks at the SAP Center on Saturday night.
Brad Marchand buries his second goal of the night.
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) February 27, 2022
What a feed from Taylor Hall.
2-1 Bruins. pic.twitter.com/8YpBzM8qIn
In his second game back from serving his six-game suspension, Marchand opened things up for the Bruins when he finished off a solid feed from Jake DeBrusk on a two-on-one at the 14:24 mark of the opening period. And if you’re looking for positives beyond the obvious of the goal scored, this was our first taste of success with ‘Top Line DeBrusk’ skating with Marchand, as both of DeBrusk’s tallies in Thursday’s win over Seattle came with neither Bergeron nor Marchand on the ice. (Bergeron still wasn’t on the ice with DeBrusk for this goal, but hey, half of that tandem is still better than none of that tandem.)
And though this game came some straight-up domination of the puck on the part of the Bruins, who outshot the Sharks by a 24-9 mark through two periods of play, the sides found themselves even through 40 minutes of play when the Sharks’ Timo Meier struck on the power play at the 12:50 mark of the middle frame.
But a slick feed from Taylor Hall to Brad Marchand at the 3:18 mark of the third period put the Bruins back on top, and from there, it became the Swayman Show when it mattered most.
In what finished as a seven-save third period for the 23-year-old, Swayman dazzled with a breakaway save on Tomas Hertl with over six minutes remaining in the third period, and made a wild glove save from in tight a minute later.
Jeremy Swayman robs Tomas Hertl with a sprawled-out glove stop: pic.twitter.com/3IDTGC5cSW
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) February 27, 2022
The Bruins made sure Swayman had a bit more breathing room late, and delivered an insurance marker behind Patrice Bergeron’s 14th goal of the campaign, scored with 40 seconds remaining in the game.
On the lineup front, Curtis Lazar missed this contest with an upper-body injury. Lazar’s injury opened the door for Jesper Froden’s second career NHL experience. Skating on a line with Nick Foligno and Tomas Nosek, Froden finished Saturday’s win with a block and two shots on goal in 10:34 of time on ice.
With the victory, the Bruins have now won four straight in San Jose for the first time in the history of the head-to-head series between the teams. Boston’s last loss in San Jose came all the way back on Mar. 15, 2016.
Up next, the Bruins will head to LA for a Monday night showdown with the Kings.
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Ty Anderson is a writer and columnist for 985TheSportsHub.com. Any opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of 98.5 The Sports Hub, Beasley Media Group, or any subsidiaries. Yell at him on Twitter: @_TyAnderson.
