Bruins strike early, often in win over Golden Knights

Powered by three goals in 54 seconds in the first period, the Bruins began their brief homestand with a bang Thursday night, and handled the Golden Knights by a 4-3 final.

The Bruins made it about as easy as you could have ever hoped, too.

Granted a four-minute power-play opportunity when a Tomas Hertl high-sticking penalty busted Alex Steeves open, some soft-toss passing between David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy ended with a McAvoy shot that beat the Golden Knights' Akira Schmid just 10 seconds in to the man advantage. 20 seconds later and still on the power play, Pastrnak got the puck to Elias Lindholm in the bumper, and Lindholm did not miss the chance to double Boston's edge on Bruce Cassidy's Knights.

And even with the sides back even at five-on-five, Boston's fourth line just straight-up outworked the Vegas defense, and Tanner Jeannot went top shelf for a 3-0 lead.

It was the fastest three-goal burst for the Bruins since 2001.

It was a first period effort that was as dominant as it gets, all things considered. In addition to the 3-0 lead, the Bruins also outshot the Knights by a 15-4 mark, and held the Knights without a shot on goal for the final 13:45 of the opening frame.

Already up by three, the Bruins pushed their lead to four in the middle frame behind some brilliant Nikita Zadorov movement that ultimately got the puck back out to Pastrnak for a wide-open look through Schmid.

The Knights finally responded to Boston's barrage with a strike of their own in the third period, courtesy of Massachusetts' Jack Eichel at the 31-second mark of the frame. Vegas found a second goal and brought themselves even closer out of 'blowout status', too, this time on a power-play strike from Hertl just 2:32 after the Eichel tally.

Vegas continued to make things interesting late, and even got their deficit down to just one goal with 2:35 left thanks to a Pavel Dorofeyev trickler into the Boston goal. But the Bruins' Joonas Korpisalo stopped the bleeding from there and refused to let the VGK get any closer, and finished with 30 saves on 33 shots.

The performance has Korpisalo on a four-game win streak, which is his longest since joining the Bruins, and longest since a four-game win streak with Ottawa in Mar. 2024.

As a team, the Bruins improved to 9-2-0 since New Year's Eve, which is tied for their hottest run of the season, having previously gone 9-2-0 in a run that spanned from Oct. 25 to Nov. 15 earlier this season. The Bruins have also outscored their opponents by a 46-27 clip over this most recent 11-game sample.

Prior to this game, the Bruins sent defenseman Jordan Harris down to AHL Providence on a conditioning assignment. The Haverhill, Mass. native Harris, who has one goal and two points in five games this season, is working his way back from a fractured ankle, and has not played since Boston's Oct. 21 loss to the Panthers.

Up next, the Bruins will welcome the Canadiens back to TD Garden for a Saturday night showdown. This will be the third of four meetings between the rivals this season, with the road team winning each game thus far in the season series.