Bruins' 3 third-period goals too much for Coyotes
GLENDALE, Ariz. -- After struggling in their first three games, the Boston Bruins appear to have turned things around.
Patrice Bergeron scored twice in the last 11 minutes to lift the Bruins past the Arizona Coyotes 5-3 Saturday night for their second straight win.
"We're moving the puck really well and we're taking what's open. We're not trying to force plays right now," Bergeron said. "We've got to do some more of that."
Tyler Randell, Dave Krejci and Brad Marchand also scored and Tuukka Rask stopped 20 shots for his first win of the season. Krejci and Torey Krug each had two assists.
After getting outscored 16-7 while losing their first three games, Boston has had a 11-5 scoring edge in the two wins.
The Bruins' latest win was its seventh straight Arizona.
Shane Doan had a goal and two assists, and Tobias Rieder and Kyle Chipchura also scored for Arizona. The Coyotes have lost two straight after opening the season with three wins.
Rieder and Chipchura scored 2 1/2 minutes apart in the third quarter to tie the score at 3 with about 13 1/2 minutes to go.
Bergeron then redirected a pass from Ryan Spooner into the net for the go-ahead power-play score at 9:10 of the period. Bergeron then added his third of the season, also on the power play, with 1:06 left to seal the win.
"They seem to be reading off each other well," coach Claude Julien said of the Bruins' three power-play goals in the game. "They seem to know where they want to go. Every one of them on that power play pretty good poise."
Marchand's short-handed breakaway goal at 4:44 of the third period extended Boston's lead to 3-1 before the Coyotes rallied to tie it.
Doan gave the Coyotes a 1-0 lead with his first goal of the season at 2:12 of the first period. He forced in a rebound off the skate of Bruins defenseman Kevan Miller and under Rask's leg pads. The goal was reviewed after Julien used his challenge but the ruling stood.
The unassisted goal marked Doan's 900th career point, making him the second player in franchise history to reach that milestone.
The Bruins failed to capitalize on their first three power plays of the game, but spent much of the night peppering Coyotes goalie Mike Smith with shots.
Boston outshot Arizona 10-1 at one point in the first period, but Smith was sharp in goal early, turning away several quality Bruins chances. Smith stopped shots from David Pastrnak at 16:48 of the period and Krejci during a power play, finishing with 38 saves.
The Coyotes had chances to add to their lead in the first period but could not convert on their two power plays and went 1 for 4 on the man advantage overall.
"Our execution was poor," Coyotes coach Dave Tippett said. "When you don't make two or three passes together it's hard to get any flow in your game, hard to get any speed."
Coyotes center Joe Vitale left the game after serving five minutes for fighting in the second period. Vitale, Tippett said, was taken to a hospital for X-rays after the game. He took a couple of punches to the head in a fight with Miller.
The Bruins finally solved Smith at 8:42 of the second after Smith had stopped two shots from Bergeron and a wrister from Colin Miller. Randell finished a pass from Krejci with a left backhand to tie the score at 1.
"He held us in the game pretty much the whole 60 minutes," Rieder said of Smith.
NOTES: Marchand returned from a concussion suffered on Oct. 10 against Montreal. ... RW Brett Connolly, a healthy scratch, missed his first game of the season . ... A good portion of the crowd of 13,411 inside Gila River Arena wore Boston's black and yellow. It was the Bruins' only visit to Arizona of the regular season. ... Coyotes C Antoine Vermette played after suffering a lower body injury in Thursday's loss to Minnesota. ... LW Jordan Martinook has a lower body injury and was scratched from Saturday's lineup.
