3 Stars: Pastrnak bounce back not enough for Bruins in Utah
A look at the top performers from Sunday’s contest between the Bruins and Mammoth.
Oct 19, 2025; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; Boston Bruins right wing David Pastrnak (88) scores a goal against the Utah Mammoth and celebrates with teammates during the first period at Delta Center. Mandatory Credit: Rob Gray-Imagn Images
Bruins head coach Marco Sturm felt the Bruins deserved better than to return back to Boston with zero of a possible six points banked away on their road trip.
But final scores have nothing to do with deserved, as the Bruins found out once again Sunday night, this time with a 3-2 loss to the Mammoth in Salt Lake City.
With the loss, the Bruins have now dropped four straight, and fell under .500 for the first time this season at 3-4-0.
Here's a look at the 985TheSportsHub.com 3 Stars of the game...
3rd Star: Clayton Keller
Oct 19, 2025; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; Utah Mammoth right wing Clayton Keller (9) skates with the puck against the Boston Bruins during the first period at Delta Center. (Rob Gray-Imagn Images)
After putting up a career-high 90 points a season ago, Captain Keller is off to yet strong start in Utah, and kept it rolling with a goal and an assist in Sunday's win over the Bruins. Keller's assist was a secondary helper, but that goal does not happen without his poise and patience to get Nikita Zadorov to make one wrong pivot and feed Nick Schmaltz (between two Bruins killers) for the beautiful look.
Keller and Schmaltz were a problem for the B's all game long, really, and their chemistry as the Utah one-two feels undeniable.
"It's not a matter of talent; it's just a special chemistry, just something you build over time," Mammoth coach Andre Tourigny said of the Keller-Schmaltz duo after the win. "We can talk about other duos in the league, like [Brad Marchand] and [Patrice Bergeron], for a long time in Boston, because we're just playing Boston, and they knew each other and they knew what to expect. Those kinds of things take time to build, and I think they have that."
2nd Star: David Pastrnak
Oct 19, 2025; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; Boston Bruins right wing David Pastrnak, second from left, scores a goal against the Utah Mammoth during the first period at Delta Center. (Rob Gray-Imagn Images)
The good news? After his worst outing of the season and a callout by Bruins head coach Marco Sturm, David Pastrnak responded in a big way with two goals and a presence that left the Mammoth's collective head spinning whenever he was on the ice and pushing pace the other way. The bad news? It still wasn't enough to get the Bruins back in the win column.
Oh, and Pastrnak matched some Bruins history in the process, as his two-goal performance tied him with the legendary Ray Bourque for the sixth-most goals in franchise history, at 395.
1st Star: Joonas Korpisalo
Oct 19, 2025; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; Bruins goaltender Joonas Korpisalo (70) makes a save against Utah Mammoth center Logan Cooley (92) during the first period at Delta Center. (Rob Gray-Imagn Images)
It feels like the Bruins are going to need exceptional goaltending to regularly win games in 2025-26. And though he did not get the win, there's no complaints with the play of Joonas Koprisalo in this one. For a full 60 minutes, it was simply too easy for the Mammoth to get to the blue paint, and generate multi-chance opportunities right at the front of the Boston net. It drove him mental, clearly, but Korpisalo did what he could to keep the Bruins in it, with 24 saves on 27 shots.
Much like his game against the Blackhawks back in Boston, it's the kind of night that won't blow you away from a box score standpoint. But looking under the hood, this night was an intense as it gets, as the Mammoth were credited with 12 high-danger shots against Korpisalo. He stopped 10 of them.
