David Pastrnak scored his first two goals of the season to power the Boston Bruins to a 3-1 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday night at TD Garden. The B’s are 1-0-0 on the season after grabbing a W in the 2023-24 season opener, as they look to avenge last year’s disappointing end.

Pastrnak has been the Bruins’ undisputed king of opening night in his career. The goal marked his sixth in eight career season openers for the B’s, dating back to the 2015-16 season as a 19-year-old. He also netted an empty-netter to ice the game, and is now on a nice, solid pace of 164 goals. Would be a record.

Unfortunately for the Bruins, the first goal scored in their building in the 2023-24 season was against them. It was also a piece of NHL history, as 2023 No. 1 overall pick Connor Bedard scored his first career goal. Bedard took advantage of the puck squirting loose as four Bruins defenders bunched up to the side of the net, taking a clean lane around the other side and beating a slow-to-react Linus Ullmark for the score.

It would be less than six minutes later that the Bruins would get the equalizer. And the play started off the stick of Bruins rookie Matt Poitras in his NHL debut. Poitras made a smooth cross-ice pass to defenseman Brandon Carlo, who let it rip, and Trent Frederic got the tip-in for his first goal of the season. Frederic is off to a strong start after scoring a career-high 17 goals last year.

It wasn’t until the second period that the next goal went in, but it came from a likely source for the Bruins. Pastrnak sniped it home for his first of the season off a cross-ice feed from returning fan favorite Milan Lucic to make it 2-1 Bruins. Needless to say, TD Garden erupted after “Pasta” scored off the assist from “Looch.”

• On the goal, Pastrnak came down on his off wing and ripped the puck far-side over the pads of Blackhawks goalie Arvid Soderblom, the kind of shot that few players in the league can not only execute but make it look easy. Pastrnak is one of them.

  LOOCH TO PASTA?
  
  YEPPPPP.#NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/zsOtBSSeVh

  — Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) October 12, 2023

• Up Next: The Bruins will host the Nashville Predators on Saturday night at TD Garden in their second game of the regular season.

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  Matt Dolloff is a writer and podcaster for 985TheSportsHub.com. Any opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of 98.5 The Sports Hub, Beasley Media Group, or any subsidiaries. Check out all of Matt’s content here.

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