What Rust? Pasta Nets His 3rd Hat Trick of the Season & 5 Points As The B's Beat The Rangers 6-3

When most players miss a significant amount of time and game action, it normally takes them at least a little while to get back up to speed. Bruins (47-21-9) superstar David Pastrnak is not like everyone else though. After being out for 16 games with his mysterious thumb injury, it basically took him a single contest to sort things out and since then he has multiple points in each of his last four games. Tonight at TD Garden vs. the Rangers (29-34-13)-who started mailing it in weeks ago-he was brilliant with his fourth career hat trick (3rd of 2018-19) and five points overall in Boston's 6-3 victory. The B's have won their last 12 games in a row on home ice which is their longest run since 14 games back in 2008-2009. Pastrnak set a career-high for points in a single game as he became the first Bruin since Cam Neely in 1993-94 to bag three hat tricks in a single season.

Coming off of Monday's disappointing 5-4 loss in Tampa Bay (59-14-4), the Bruins predictably bounced back in a big way as they improved to 29-7-3 at the Garden which is only topped by the Lightning's incomparable home dominance (32-6-2). With Torey Krug (2 assists) back in action after missing the past six games with a concussion, the B's power play more closely resembled the No. 3 unit in the NHL as they went a ridiculous 4-for-6 on the man advantage. Boston never trailed as the best the AHL (many players in their lineup were recently called up from Hartford) Rangers could muster was a 1-1 tie before the B's went ahead in the second period and didn't look back with four goals in the third period including three power play goals in the span of 4:20 (somewhere Snoop Dogg smiles).

New York was called for a pair of too many men on the ice penalties and both times, Boston made them pay for their silly mistakes. Pastrnak hammered in a one-timer (his 34th goal of the season) from Brad Marchand (3 assists) and Patrice Bergeron (extending Brad and Patrice's home point-streak to a ridiculous 17 games) at 2:48 of the 1st period for a 1-0 Bruins lead. You could make a solid argument that Mika Zibanejad (2 goals) and Ryan Strome (goal, assist) were the only Rangers to really do anything notable this evening. Zibanejad tied it with a nifty move and power play goal of his own at 16:29 of the first period. Strome and Pavel Buchnevich had the assists on the Swede's 29th goal of the season.

The Rangers could never really figure out that it's important to cover Pasta and to not let him set up shop in the slot, something that also somehow always seems to elude the Bruins' minds whenever they play Steven Stamkos or Alex Ovechkin. Pastrnak tied his career-high with his 35th goal of the season at 9:15 of the second period. David Krejci (2 assists) and Krug had the helpers on another one-timer that put Torey into the Bruins' record book with the most points ever by an American (284). Boston took a 3-1 lead early in the third period (3:19) as Jake DeBrusk put in an awesome cross-ice feed from Pastrnak. Krejci had the second assist on DeBrusk's 24th goal of the season. Strome briefly cut it to 3-2 Bruins as he potted a rebound at 5:43 for his 16th goal of the season, assisted by Brett Howden and Brady Skjei.

It wouldn't stay close for very long since New York couldn't stay out of the penalty box which in turn allowed Boston to keep lighting the lamp like it was going out of style. Pasta got his hat trick at 12:52, from Krug and Marchand, on a shot that I'm sure the former King Henrik Lundqvist (26 saves) would love to have back. It looked like Pastrnak scored yet again at 16:23 but the power play tally went to Bergeron who tipped in David's shot with Marchand picking up the second assist. Charlie McAvoy jumped up in a rush on another power play and was able to get on the scoresheet with his seventh goal of the season at 17:12 from Zdeno Chara and Charlie Coyle which made it 6-2 in favor of the home team. In the ultimate sign of garbage time stat padding, Zibanejad notched his first 30-goal season in the NHL with four seconds left in regulation.

Jaroslav Halak (20 saves, 21st win of the season) didn't have to do all that much but he still improved to 8-1-2 in his last 11 decisions. He's played in only five less games (38) than Tuukka Rask (26-11-5) which should keep the latter as fresh as he can be when the playoffs start in a few weeks. Toronto (45-25-7) lost 5-4 in a shootout tonight at Philly (37-32-8) meaning that Boston gained another point on the Leafs and has six more than them with both clubs only having five games left in the regular season. The Bruins are off tomorrow before getting a practice in on Friday ahead of an extremely winnable back-to-back this weekend: Saturday afternoon (1, NESN) vs. Florida (33-32-12) and Sunday night (7:30, NBC Sports) at Detroit (28-38-10). Like the Rangers, neither of those teams have anything tangible to play for so they are liable to roll over if Boston can get an early lead on them.

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