Bruins slide hits three with 4-1 loss to Avalanche

And then the Bruins were back even.

After beginning their season with three straight victories, the Bruins are back to square one at .500 behind Saturday's 4-1 loss to the Avalanche. The loss marked the third straight regulation defeat for Marco Sturm's squad.

There's also no doubting that this was absolutely the Black and Gold's most deflating loss of the three, too. Particularly at the offense end of things considering the Bruins failed to do much of anything with the puck on their stick. In fact, they barely had the puck on their stick in this contest, with just 14 shots on goal by the night's end. Boston's failure to generate anything on the Avs' Scott Wedgewood was headlined by a second and third period stretch that saw the Bruins go a staggering 17 minutes and 14 seconds between shots on goal.

Boston's lone goal in this contest came in the first period, and in the season debut for fourth-line winger Johnny Beecher, who tucked home a slap-pass from Charlie McAvoy that hit Beecher's stick right to the right of Wedgewood.

But the Bruins once again allowed a response goal, this time thanks to an ugly David Pastrnak turnover in the neutral zone, and allowed the Avs to knot things up just four minutes after Beecher's tally. The Avalanche then grabbed their first lead of the evening just 3:14 later behind a Josh Manson wobbling bullet blasted through Jeremy Swayman after a clean-as-can-be Gabe Landeskog faceoff win against the Bruins' Casey Mittelstadt.

Colorado then did absolutely everything they could to bury the Bruins in the second period, with a 16-2 shot advantage in the middle frame, but Swayman did everything he could to keep the Bruins alive. After beginning his night with two goals on two shots faced, Swayman rallied and at one point rattled off 22 straight saves before MacKinnon struck again in the third period of play.

Overall, Swayman finished with 34 saves on 37 shots faced, and was the only reason this game wasn't a complete laugher in Colorado's favor.

As noted, Beecher made his season debut in the losing effort, and finished with a goal on three shots, one hit, and two blocks in 13:28 of time on ice.

On the backend, Hampus Lindholm made his return to the Boston lineup after missing the last three games with a lower-body injury. Lindholm finished this game with three blocks and a minus-2 rating in 20:44 of action.

The Bruins will conclude this three-game road trip Sunday night in Utah.