Ian Cole scored a game winning second period goal as the Colorado Avalanche won their sixth straight game with a 4-1 victory over the Boston Bruins Saturday night at TD Garden in Boston.
The loss ended the Bruins streak of not losing at home in regulation this season which was 12-0-5 coming in. It also ends a 13 game points streak for Boston (9-0-4). The home team took the lead though when Chris Wagner deflected a John Moore shot into the net at 13:14 of the first period. Valeri Nichushkin evened things at 17:25 for Colorado (19-8-2). Starting Avalanche goalie Philipp Grubauer left after facing three shots due to injury. Cole got the game winner at 9:17 of the middle period in his 500th NHL game. It was Coles first goal of the season in 24 games. Andre Burakovsky extended it to 3-1 at 18:21, getting behind defenseman Charlie McAvoy and beating Bruins goalie Jaroslav Halak. Boston, who rallied from three goals down in the third period to send it to overtime against Chicago Thursday night, had no such luck on this night as Pavel Francouz was perfect in net for Colorado in relief of Grubauer. Gabriel Landeskog added an empty net goal with only seconds left in the third to cap off the Avalanche win.
Halak made 16 saves in the Boston loss, as the Bruins fall to 20-4-6. Francouz stopped all 16 shots he faced to pick up the win. Colorado was 0-1 on the powerplay, while Boston went 0-3. Colorado is now 12-0-2 in the last 14 trips to Boston against the Bruins dating back to February of 1999. Zdeno Chara played in his 1,515th NHL game, passing Steve Yzerman for 20th on the all-time list. The B’s are back in action Monday when they travel to Ottawa to play the Senators at 7:30 p.m.
