The top line stepped up in a big way Thursday night, scoring three of the teams four goals as the Boston Bruins evened their best of seven Eastern Conference semifinal series at 2-2 with a 4-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets in game four at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.
David Pastrnak broke his scoreless slump taking a cross ice pass from Charlie McAvoy and one timing a shot that snuck past Columbus goalie Sergei Bobrovsky stick side, just slipping over the goal line at 3:33 of the first period to make it 1-0 Boston. On the powerplay 3:45 later Brad Marchand broke down the left wing boards, and centered a pass to Patrice Bergeron in the high slot who wristed a shot glove side on Bobrovsky to make it 2-0. Artemi Panarin though got the Blue Jackets back within a goal on sort of a broken play 1:28 after the Bergeron goal. After it looked like the puck had gone out of play by hitting the protective netting up above Boston goalie Tuuka Rask, the Jackets found the loose puck and centered to Panarin who beat the down and out and out of position Rask.
The game would remain 2-1 throughout the second period with both teams having great chances. The Bruins regained a two goal advantage at 8:40 of the third period. Zdeno Chara took a shot that bounced off the back boards right to Sean Kuraly in front of Bobrovsky in the slot, and Kuraly fired it home scoring just his second goal of the playoffs. Boston put the game away on the powerplay at 17:30, when Bergeron cleaned up a Pastrnak shot right in front of the Columbus goalie to secure the win and tying up the series heading back home.
Rask made 39 saves in the win, while Bobrovsky made 42 in the loss. Along with Bergeron, Pastrnak also had two points with a goal and an assist and Torey Krug also adding two assists on the night. Boston was 2-6 on the powerplay, while Columbus was 0-4. A key game five is Saturday night at TD Garden in Boston with faceoff set for 7:15 pm.
