An already high-scoring week for the Boston Bruins hit its high Saturday night at TD Garden, as Jim Montgomery’s club exploded for a season-high seven goals in a 7-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning.

And despite a rough start that saw the Lightning score on their first shot of the night (and just 21 seconds into the start of the game), this was about as strong an effort as Montgomery could’ve hoped for against a desperate Tampa club, with 12 different Bruins on the board with a point by the night’s end.

“I really liked our third period,” Montgomery said after his team’s victory. “I thought we were smart [and] we didn’t give up an odd-man rush. We had numbers everywhere.”

• What you had to love from the Bruins in this game was their ability to re-establish their multi-goal lead or bury Tampa whenever given the opportunity. On two separate occasions, the Lightning came through goals to pull themselves within striking distance, and it felt like each time that happened, the Bruins got back on their horse and found an insurance marker to breathe a little bit easier.

  This was also the worst that the B’s have ever beaten up the Bolts’ Andrei Vasilevskiy, too, as they tagged the Lightning netminder for six goals on 26 shots. It was the first time that the Bruins have ever scored six goals on the 29-year-old Vasilevskiy in the history of their head-to-heads.

  Saturday night at the Garden also featured Boston’s sixth straight performance of at least four goals. That’s their longest such streak since a six-game run of at least four goals back in Nov. 2011.

  Here are the 98.5 The Sports Hub (dot com) 3 Stars from another showdown between the Bruins and Lightning at Boston’s TD Garden…

• No. 3 Star: Nikita Kucherov

  

  Jan 6, 2024; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Lightning right wing Nikita Kucherov (86) celebrates with Brayden Point (21) after scoring a goal against the Bruins during the second period at the TD Garden. (Brian Fluharty/USA TODAY Sports)

• You know, there’s a real ‘2018-2021 Bruins’ kind of vibe when it comes to this year’s Lightning team. They put all their eggs in the Hagel-Point-Kucherov basket (similar to when the Bruins would load up with Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak as Patrice Bergeron’s wingers), and your night can often be decided by how much their torment you or how much to limit everybody below ’em.

  The Bruins got a little bit of both Saturday night, as Nikita Kucherov came through a goal and two assists in the losing effort, and with Kucherov (obviously) a direct factor in all three TB goals.

  KUCHEROV IS OUTTA THIS WORLD WHAT AN ASSIST 🤯 pic.twitter.com/8XOo00WoFm

  — B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) January 7, 2024

  It was Kucherov’s second assist of the night that was downright gorgeous, too, as he made every Bruin on the ice look straight-up foolish before he fed Brayden Point for an easy strike on Linus Ullmark.

• No. 2 Star: David Pastrnak

  

  Jan 6, 2024; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Bruins right wing David Pastrnak (88) skates against Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy (88) during the first period at the TD Garden. (Brian Fluharty/USA TODAY Sports)

• It just feels like Bruins superstar David Pastrnak is playing on ‘easy mode’ these days.

  In what was his fourth multi-point outing in his last five games, Pastrnak began his night with a brilliant four-on-four goal scored in all-alone (but with Tampa’s Darren Raddysh on his back the whole way), and stunned Vasilevskiy with a top-shelf finish that went up over his glove and into the Tampa net.

  David Pastrnak scores his 24th goal of the season. Impressive finish.
  
  4-2 Bruins. pic.twitter.com/WVUT0qKC9V

  — Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) January 7, 2024

  Pastrnak also had the soft hands dish to Morgan Geekie for the Black and Gold’s fifth goal of the evening, and in what was another sign of the budding chemistry between these two seemingly strange bedfellows.

  Morgan Geekie scores his seventh goal of the season.
  
  5-3 Bruins. pic.twitter.com/88t8wMDBbo

  — Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) January 7, 2024

  Pastrnak is up to 55 points on the year, and is tied with the Rangers’ Artemi Panarin for the third-most points in the NHL approaching the halfway mark of the 2023-24 season.

• No. 1 Star: Trent Frederic

  

  Jan 6, 2024; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Bruins center Trent Frederic (11) reacts after scoring a goal against the Tampa Bay Lightning during the first period at the TD Garden. (Brian Fluharty/USA TODAY Sports)

• It wasn’t all that long ago that seemingly everybody was complaining about Trent Frederic and labeling the big-bodied, versatile forward as yet another first-round bust for B’s general manager Don Sweeney. (And, listen, we can’t lie, it did get a little dicey there for a minute, especially with Frederic’s ceiling looking like that of a fourth-line agitator for a good little while there.)

  But the B’s patience has paid off, and continued to pay off Saturday night, with yet another two-goal outing for the 6-foot-3 Frederic. And on a night that included the first power-play goal of Frederic’s career.

  Trent Frederic scores his first career power-play goal.
  
  1-1 game. pic.twitter.com/tsIvl4WQyC

  — Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) January 7, 2024

  “His confidence has increased, his poise with the puck [has increased], and he’s got tremendous hands,” Montgomery said of Frederic after the win. “In practice, he scores more than anybody except for Pasta.

  “He’s just gotta keep being really focused on his habits, his details, and moving his feet. If he keeps doing those things, I expect him to keep scoring like he has.”

  Going back to the start of last year, Frederic has chipped with an impressive 29 goals in 117 games. That’s the 115th-most among all NHL forwards over that stretch, and 28 of those strikes have come at even strength, which ranks 60th among that same group of NHL forwards. Taking it a step further, Frederic has been the league’s third-highest scorer from a points standpoint among players who’ve averaged fewer than 13 minutes per game over that span, while his 29 goals are second to only Daniel Sprong and his 31 goals between Seattle and Detroit over that stretch.

  But keeping it to the recent results, there’s no denying that Frederic has been on a massive heater for the last month and a half or so, with five-on-five scoring rates stronger than some of the best stars in the league.

• Also on this: Entering tonight's game, Frederic has averaged 2.85 points per 60 at 5v5 since Nov. 25. 30th-best rate in the entire NHL (min. 200 5v5 minutes). Better than names like Matthews, Panarin, Kaprizov, Draisaitl, Crosby, Point, DeBrincat. Quite a heater. https://t.co/6kWC2DvDLz

  — Ty Anderson (@_TyAnderson) January 7, 2024

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