Bruins kick off homestand with win over Utah

Powered by a pair of goals from Morgan Geekie, the Boston Bruins successfully flushed away the bad vibes of Sunday's blowout loss with a 4-1 win over the visiting Utah Mammoth at TD Garden on Tuesday night.

The win was Boston's 20th of the season, and allowed the Bruins to hit the 20-win mark in four fewer games than they did a season ago.

Down 1-0 just 8:34 into the game behind a Barrett Hayton power-play tip through Jeremy Swayman, Geekie made sure the Bruins skated back to their dressing room tied at 1-1 behind a slick finish on some beautiful power-play movement.

On a sequence that saw puck touches from four of Boston's five power-play skaters, it was Elias Lindholm who fed the puck out to David Pastrnak before Pastrnak held and found Geekie for a wide-open look on the Utah cage.

And in the second period, Geekie decided to show off his goal-scoring versatility once again, this time with a net-front tip to put the Bruins up 2-1.

Geekie's second-period tally really set the tone for the Black and Gold in a period that was all theirs. In what was ultimately a period that favored the Bruins over the Mammoth by an 8-3 edge in shots, the Bruins constantly pressured the Mammoth in their own zone. Boston forced countless turnovers for chances on goal, and had goaltender Vitek Vanecek swimming and looking behind him all period long.

In the third, the Bruins continued to stifle the Mammoth offense, while Bruins netminder Jeremy Swayman made some key stops for the club. Swayman got the juices flowing early in the third period, too, with a big-time stop on Utah's Clayton Keller on a prime power-play look early in the frame.

The Bruins made the timely saves from Swayman count, too, as Casey Mittelstadt stormed down the ice and doubled the Boston lead at the 10:16 mark of the third period. The goal was good for Mittelstadt's eighth of the season, and has put him just 10 away from matching his career-high with 48 games to go in the season.

And in case a two-goal lead wasn't enough, the Bruins pushed their lead out to three when Mikey Eyssimont pounced on a loose puck and took it all the way to the Utah crease for a tuck on Vanecek with just under four minutes to play.

The unassisted tally was Eyssimont's sixth goal of the season.

Vanecek finished the loss with four goals allowed on 23 shots, while the Bruins' Swayman stopped 20-of-21 for the victory at the other end of the rink.

Prior to this contest, the Bruins successfully claimed defenseman Vladislav Kolyachonok off waivers from the Stars. The lefty-shooting Kolyachonok comes to the Bruins with one goal and three points in 11 games for Dallas this season, and five goals and 17 points in 85 NHL games since the 2021-22 season.

In a corresponding move, the Bruins placed Jonathan Aspirot on the injured reserve. Aspirot suffered an upper-body injury in Boston's win over the Jets last Thursday, and missed Sunday's loss in Minnesota before landing on the IR.

The Bruins are back in action Thursday night against the Oilers.