Bruins avoid ‘first game home’ letdown with win over Flames

It would only be fair to acknowledge that the Bruins were not putting backup goaltender Joonas Korpisalo in the best possible spot Thursday night at TD Garden.

Not only were the Bruins finally back home after a lengthy five-game road trip, but Korpisalo himself was making his first start in almost two full weeks. The first game back from a road trip is always a tough one, and adding a potentially cold goaltender to the equation? That could've been Nightmare City in Boston. But the Bruins gave Korpisalo plenty of support — and Korpisalo stood tall with some fantastic saves when called upon — to help the Bruins avoid a letdown with a 4-1 win over the Flames.

Going up against a Calgary squad playing their second game in as many nights, the Bruins jumped on 'em early, with tallies from Sean Kuraly and Elias Lindholm in a 2:18 span. The Kuraly goal was good for his fourth marker of the season, while Lindholm's goal was his eighth of the campaign and third in his last four games.

Up by two through 20 minutes of play, the Bruins pushed their lead to three behind a Mason Lohrei snipe, and then four when Casey Mittelstadt was able to tuck a second-chance opportunity through the Flames' Dustin Wolf. And much like their strikes in the first period, the third and fourth goals came in quick order for the Bruins in the middle frame, with the Lohrei and Mittelstadt goals separated by just 3:57 of play.

Down four, the Flames finally responded with a Connor Zary goal at the 18:44 mark of the second period. It would be all the Flames had to show for their efforts in this one.

And that's because Korpisalo was as dialed in as he's been in almost any game this season. After taking a rather hard luck loss in Buffalo back on Dec. 27 (he was arguably the only reason it didn't totally spiral out of control), Korpisalo battled all night long, and refused to give the Flames any life. That was especially true early in the third period, too, when Korpisalo denied Joel Farabee on a partial breakaway.

The 31-year-old finished his night with 28 saves in the win.

Elsewhere, the Bruins survived two separate injury scares involving Charlie McAvoy in this one. Struggling after a blocked shot, McAvoy made his way back to the Boston bench and down to the locker room right as Kuraly scored in the first period. And in the second period, McAvoy appeared to shake off a lower-body injury in the Boston end. All in a day's work, though, as McAvoy got through this contest without missing more than a shift, and had a key block on Boston's third-period penalty kill.

Up front, the Bruins shuffled their lines a bit, and went back with a first-line look that puts Marat Khusnutdinov to the left of the Lindholm-Pastrnak combo. And with Boston's second and fourth lines untouched, that decision put Fraser Minten in between Alex Steeves and Morgan Geekie on the Black and Gold's third line.

Boston's latest shuffling up front came with the hopes of getting Geekie back online offensively. Geekie came into Thursday's game riding a seven-game goalless drought, and has just three goals in his last 13 games played. Geekie did not end the drought in this contest, though he had some strong net-front looks where a shot eluded him.

The Bruins will get back to work Saturday afternoon when they host the Rangers at TD Garden for a 1 p.m. head-to-head.