Hurricanes hammer Bruins into third straight loss

It took 50 games, but the Bruins are officially slumping.

In Carolina for the second leg of a back-to-back that kicked off with a Saturday defeat in Sunrise, the Bruins found themselves on the wrong end of a 4-1 final, and pushed their losing streak to three games.

For the Bruins, who did not have their B or even their C game in this loss, it’s their first three-game losing streak since a three-game slide last April, and just their third losing streak of at least three-games since the start of the 2019-20 season.

• For Jim Montgomery’s squad, the road to a frustrating loss kicked off in the worst way possible, with David Pastrnak pressured into a turnover at the Carolina blue line.

  Not only did the turnover derail the Bruins from any positive traction towards Frederik Andersen, but it also sent the Hurricanes’ Sebastian Aho in on Linus Ullmark with nothing but ice in front of him.

  And Aho, who has been one of the game’s hottest scorers over the last week, did not miss, and beat Ullmark for the marker that put the B’s in an 0-1 hole at the 10:52 mark of the first period.

• Sebastian Aho is ON ONE right now pic.twitter.com/ivW0FePr6k

  — Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) January 29, 2023

• Up by one through 20 minutes of play, the Hurricanes doubled their lead in the middle frame behind a Paul Stastny power-play marker with just under eight minutes remaining in the period.

  The goal, which came with both Derek Forbort and Brad Marchand in the box for the Bruins, gave the Hurricanes a multi-goal edge through two periods of play.

  Rod Brind’Amour’s club failed to take any sort of comfort in the two-goal lead through 40 minutes of action, and extended their lead to three when Seth Jarvis outworked Brandon Carlo for an all-alone chance on Ullmark to make it 3-0 less than two minutes into the third period of action.

• You need to stop and watch this goal by Seth Jarvis pic.twitter.com/1wBGAvnvnp

  — Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) January 30, 2023

• Down by three, the Bruins finally countered with a punch of their own when Taylor Hall tipped a Pavel Zacha shot through Andersen with 16:38 remaining in the game.

  It was quite literally too little, too late for the Bruins, but it did end what was a monstrous streak of sorts for Andersen, whose shutout streak over the Bruins was snapped at 152 minutes and nine seconds.

  The Bruins had their chance to make a game of it with a power-play opportunity and the team chasing a two-goal deficit, but a Jordan Staal empty-net goal served as the dagger Sunday in Raleigh.

  Ullmark took the loss behind a 32-of-35 effort — and it honestly could’ve been a six-goal outing for the ‘Canes had it not been for Ullmark’s performance in the Boston net — while Andersen captured the victory with a 24-save performance at the other end of the rink.

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  Jan 29, 2023; Raleigh, North Carolina, USA; Carolina Hurricanes center Martin Necas (88) stick is slashed by Boston Bruins left wing Nick Foligno (17) during the first period at PNC Arena. (James Guillory/USA TODAY Sports)

• Up front, Trent Frederic played in this contest after departing Saturday’s contest early with a lower-body injury. With Frederic and Marc McLaughlin in the lineup for the second game in a row, Joona Koppanen sat as the Black and Gold’s healthy scratch up front, and was joined by Jakub Zboril in the press box.

  The Bruins will wrap-up their pre-All Star Game slate Wednesday night in Toronto. The Maple Leafs have split their season series with the Bruins to date, but will play that game without Auston Matthews, as Matthews is dealing with an apparent knee injury. The Leafs will also be without goaltender Matt Murray (ankle).