3 Stars: Swayman leads way for Bruins in streak-breaking win

Marco Sturm and the rest of the Boston Bruins, with losses in six straight, were going to need an all-hands-on-deck kind of effort to slow down the surging Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl up in Edmonton on Wednesday night.

And Sturm got everything he needed (and more) in what was a 6-2 win for the Bruins, headlined by points for 11 different Bruins by the night's end.

"I'm just proud of the way we played and the way we came out," Sturm said following the victory, which was just the fourth regulation loss for the Oilers in 17 games in their own building this season. " I don’t think a lot of people thought we'd grab two points tonight, but we did.”

Here's a look at the 985TheSportsHub.com 3 Stars of the game...

Drawing the McDavid matchup for most of the night at even-strength play, the Bruins got what was arguably the best performance of the season out of Hampus Lindholm.

Paired with Jonathan Aspirot on the Black and Gold's second pairing, Lindholm played a steady and at times boring (in a good way) game, and Lindholm's only on-ice goal against came in garbage time and the opposite of the defensive zone as Lindholm. And despite some pretty significant defensive-zone usage, Lindholm's on-ice impact the other way was certainly noticeable, with a 14-7 edge in shot attempts, 7-4 edge in shots, and 3-1 scoring edge in 14:30 of five-on-five deployment. 

In addition to the Bruins winning the ice whenever Lindholm was out there, the 6-foot-4 defenseman also came through with a goal (his third of the season) and an assist.

The two-point performance was the capper to what was a five-shot night that also included two blocked shots.

In a star vs. star kind of matchup, it'd be a tall task to ask David Pastrnak to outshine both McDavid and Draisaitl. But No. 88 snapped out of what's been a mini-funk for his game and was undoubtedly the best skater in this one, with two goals and an assist.

Pastrnak's three-point outing was his best since a four-night in Winnipeg on Dec. 11.

The Bruins did get six goals in this contest, so I know that this might sound weird, but they absolutely needed the performance they got out of Jeremy Swayman in this one.

Tagged for 36 shots in this game, Swayman finished with a 34-of-36 line in the Boston crease, and kept the Bruins out of danger throughout the night.

And though the Bruins outshot in all three periods of play, Swayman was tested right out of the gate, making 14 saves in the opening 20 minutes of action. Again, the blowout nature of the win might have made it seem like an easy night for Swayman, but it was actually one of his busiest of the season, with 16 high-danger shots faced by the night's end (according to NaturalStatTrick). 16! And the craziest part of all? Swayman stopped all 16 of those high-danger shots on the way to the win.