Dec 12, 2021
Ullmark backstops Bruins to victory over Flames
inus Ullmark had a remarkable 40-save effort and Brad Marchand paced the offence with a goal and an assist Saturday to lead the Boston Bruins to a 4-2 win over the Calgary Flames.
The Canadian Press
CALGARY — Linus Ullmark had a remarkable 40-save effort and Brad Marchand paced the offence with a goal and an assist Saturday to lead the Boston Bruins to a 4-2 win over the Calgary Flames.
Ullmark has given up two or fewer goals in each of his last five starts, winning four of those games. He improved to 7-5-0.
Charlie McAvoy, Curtis Lazar, and Connor Clifton, with his first of the season, also scored for Boston (14-8-2). The Bruins have points in five straight games (3-0-2) and have gone seven consecutive games on the road (6-0-1) without a regulation loss.
After taking five of six points on its western Canada road trip, Boston is back in action Tuesday when it hosts Vegas.
Matthew Tkachuk and Sean Monahan scored for Calgary (15-7-6), which saw its season-long winless skid extend to four games. Rasmus Andersson had two assists. The Flames begin a two-game road trip that opens in Chicago on Monday.
Jacob Markstrom had 23 saves in the loss. He dropped to 10-6-5.
Ullmark was the story for Boston, and right from the opening puck drop.
After stopping all 15 shots he faced in the first period as the Bruins took the lead, he had to made five saves – including dangerous chances from in close by Andrew Mangiapane and Milan Lucic – on an early second-period Flames power play that kept it 1-0 for the visitors.
The Bruins took control shortly after, surging in front 3-0 on goals 56 seconds apart from Marchand and McAvoy.
At 5:52, David Pastrnak gained the Flames zone, hung onto the puck as he curled back to get some separation from Andersson before getting a shot away that Marchand deftly struck out of the air and over Markstrom's glove.
McAvoy made it 3-0 when he slid in from the point undetected and used big Flames defenceman Nikita Zadorov as a screen to pick the top corner.
The Flames cut the deficit to two at 12:19 of the second when on the power play, Tkachuk got the puck at the top of the crease after Andersson's point shot didn't get through and flipped it into the net for his 12th goal.
Tkachuk's goal snapped an 0-for-15 drought on the man advantage. It came two minutes after Ullmark had flashed the glove to rob Tkachuk from the slot.
Boston restored its two-goal cushion three minutes into the third when Markstrom couldn't control the rebound from Trent Frederic's original short and seconds later, Lazar knocked the puck in for his second of the season.
Lazar was back in the line-up after being a healthy scratch last game.
It remained 4-1 until Monahan scored with 1:36 left in the third.
Calgary outshot Boston 15-7 in the first period, but against the flow of play, the Bruins got the only goal off an innocent-looking rush with just over two minutes remaining.
After jumping into the attack and getting the puck as he skated down the sideboards, Clifton sent a rising wrist shot from a sharp angle that eluded the glove of Markstrom.
Notes: The Flames lost in regulation against an Eastern-Conference opponent for just the second time (12-2-3)... Boston defenceman Brandon Carlo (lower body) missed his second game.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 11, 2021.