Minten Scores Twice as Bruins Open Road Trip With 6-3 Win in San Jose
Bruins fans, if you stayed up for this one, we hope you got some sleep afterward, because Tuesday night in San Jose was worth every yawn. Boston kicked off its longest road trip of the season with a 6-3 win over the Sharks at SAP Center. That's three straight wins, and the Black and Gold are now 5-2-0.
And once again, the headline belongs to Fraser Minten. Two goals, plus-4, and another night of looking like the most composed 22-year-old in the building. But this was a team win in every sense, with six different players scoring and a very familiar face making a very welcome return.
Minten gets us rolling
It started with a nice bit of patience in the first period. Nikita Zadorov settled the puck in the neutral zone and moved it to Casey Mittelstadt, who carried it below the goal line before spotting Minten coming in late up top. Minten finished, and the Bruins had the early lead. That's the kind of goal you love to see: simple, smart, and built on everyone reading the play.
San Jose answered to tie it, but then came the moment a lot of us had been waiting for.
Welcome back, Chuck
Charlie McAvoy, playing his first game of the season after serving a six-game suspension, wasted no time reminding everyone what we'd been missing. JJ Peterka found a loose puck to the right of Yaroslav Askarov and slid it across, and McAvoy, crashing the net like he'd been waiting all month to do it, tapped it in for a 2-1 lead. If you heard a cheer from somewhere in New England around midnight, that was probably us.
A wild middle frame
The Sharks weren't going away. Ivar Stenberg tied it 2-2 on the power play at 5:48 of the second, finishing a back-door feed from Macklin Celebrini. But the Bruins had two big answers. At 8:42, Mark Kastelic had the puck poked off his stick behind the net, it popped out to the post, and Matthew Poitras jammed it home while Askarov was looking the other way. Pure hustle. Then, with just three seconds left in the period, Pavel Zacha ripped a one-timer to make it 4-2. Goals with three seconds left on the clock are the best kind of goals, and that one sent us into intermission feeling great.
Minten slams the door
Of course, it's never that easy. Celebrini scored on the power play at 5:04 of the third to make it 4-3, and for a few minutes it got a little tense. The Sharks were pushing, and you could feel the momentum swinging.
Then the kid stepped up again. On a San Jose rush, a blocked pass bounced right to Marat Khusnutdinov, who pushed it the other way and found Minten at the top of the crease for the tap-in at 11:47. That made it 5-3, and that was the dagger. Will Borgen put a bow on it at 18:18, banking the puck off the boards from his own zone into the empty net. It was his first goal as a Bruin, and honestly, it was a pretty fun way to get it.
Swayman steals the show (again)
Let's not skip past the goaltending, because the Sharks outshot Boston on this night and Jeremy Swayman was a big reason it never got away from us. He made 35 saves and improved to 5-1 on the season. Every time San Jose had a look, Sway was there.
Morgan Geekie chipped in two assists, and Minten and Borgen both finished plus-4.
Our takeaways
Minten is the real deal. He leads the team with four goals, and the line with Khusnutdinov and Peterka has become must-watch hockey. McAvoy changes everything. Getting our best defenseman back makes this blue line deeper and scarier for opponents. Sway is locked in. When your goalie is stealing chances like this, you're going to win a lot of games.
Next up, Anaheim on Friday. Let's keep this road trip rolling, B's fans. 🐻