First period

It was a pretty close stretch early on, with Boston slowly overtaking the Avs as it was clear that Colorado really didn't have much of an offense outside of their stars. Finally the dam burst Cole Koepke slotted in a shot from Andrew Peeke to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead!

Great work from everyone on the walls this shift; The Avs struggled.

Then Riley Tufte was berated for holding Josh Manson, and the Bruins learned firsthand why putting the Avalanche on the power play is a very bad idea as they only needed about 21 seconds to get Ross Colton on the board and tie the game. 1-1.

That becomes the motif. Be prepared.

Luckily, Boston showed some power play skill as they were able to respond with Mason Lohrei He picked up a lucky rebound from Josh Manson and lobbed it to Charlie Coyle, who put it in a yawning cage! 2-1 Bruins!

Excellent game recognition from Lohrei And Coyle there. Extraordinary stuff.

No further scoring, so let's move on to game section 2!

Second period

The score opened with another power play tally when David Pastrnak received a pass as he was brought up the ice to keep the game alive and was rewarded for his efforts Hampus Lindholm threw him a sharp centering feed, which he hit into the goal at the front of the net. 3-1 Bruins!

And you know what? That looked fun. Hampus gave Pasta this goal, so why not get his own? Let's see how he comes through in the end.

Well, hell, I guess any old shot will do! 4-1 Bruins!

Unfortunately, the Bruins kept putting the Colorado Avalanche on the power play, and last time they didn't seem to be able to retain the lesson Cale Makar, who is very good and one of Colorado's best players, made them pay with another power-play sack. 4-2 Bruins.

I probably want that back.

Anyway, the B's and Avs head to the locker room and a final third awaits.

Third period

ANOTHER O-ZONE PENALTY!?

Okay, well, the Bruins apparently didn't get the memo on the Avs and power play. This time, Mikko Rantanen fired a shot past Korpisalo, cutting the Bruins' lead to 4-3.

Luckily, the Bruins managed to get past the waking up and hard attacking Avs and try to get back in the game… and Johnny Beecher finally ended the game by making the Avs pay with an empty netter.

5-3, Bruins win!

Game notes

• Your TOI leader was Charlie McAvoy, who logged 10:58 this evening.
• Boston dropped 21 shots on the Avs in 40 minutes and could only muster about 11 in response in the same period. Not to put too fine a point on it, but the Avs were pretty bad at evens and the B's took full advantage of that. Thanks to the help of the referees and Riley Tufte, the Avs got it back in the third period, but otherwise the Bruins took a team struggling under the weight of some positional issues and made them pay three times.
• The B's had five different scorers tonight and of course another strong night for the 4th line; Kastelic, Beecher and Koepke were somewhere in the top six of the advanced metrics between all three important ones and were rewarded with two goals from Beecher and Koepke. It's always nice to see Deep people working their asses off, being a net positive as a result of that work, and then getting rewarded for it.
• Decent night for Hampus Lindholm! He played 22 minutes, got an assist on Pasta's goal, and probably scored one of the easiest goals he ever scored in the NHL, if it wasn't in an empty-net warmup. Good for him!
• When Mason Lohrei is on his horse, he can be an active joy to watch, such as his pass that gave Charlie Coyle his first pass of the year. That's the effort we need to see consistently, and can they get it from him? Now we cook.
• Matthew Poitras' play will be a topic of discussion after he was benched or kept off the ice for nearly the entire third period. Honestly, I think it's okay to remind a promising player that he's currently not living up to his own standards. I think this will stick because Riley Tufte was mostly trying to hand the game to the Avalanche the entire game and Max Jones was supposedly just running the ice.
• Joonas Korpisalo played against a 2024-25 Colorado Avalanche goaltender, so he is automatically excluded from any criticism I might make about his performance, as he was surpassed in stupidity by Alex Georgiev. He probably wants Makar's goal back, but honestly, if every goal he conceded tonight was just a result of Boston only having four outfield players against the Colorado Avalanche, I think he deserves a reprieve.
• However, I really don't want the B's to play another team and come away with the other team winning 3-on-3. Particularly whether Riley Tufte will be directly responsible for two of them in the offensive zone. Sounds good? Great. Go eat some popcorn and model the new third jersey a bit.
• Another injury scare for Brad Marchand. I'll stay honest until he starts to heal from all these surgeries… I'm okay with him continuing to insert himself into the lineup so they can protect him a little. He's too important to the long-term health of the team.
• Nikita Zadorov should send the refs an “I'm sorry” message or something because the last few games this guy has just gotten fired up by the ref.
• Wow, crazy that David Pastrnak has 5 points in 5 games, he really needs to pick up the pace doesn't he?
• Is it strange to think that the next game will be a test at the start of the season? Did anyone think that might be the case at the start of the season? Because now it's starting to feel that way.

The Bruins continue their little Western road trip, making their first-ever appearance at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, where they face Utah HC on Saturday night at 9:30 p.m. EST.

See you there!