McAvoy Scores in His Season Debut as Bruins Beat Sharks 6-3 to Close Frozen Frenzy

By The Sports Desk, Previously

October 14, 2026

Fraser Minten scored twice, Charlie McAvoy scored in his first game back from a six-game suspension, and Jeremy Swayman made 35 saves as Boston won its third straight in the last game of the NHL's 16-game night.

The last game of the NHL's longest night ended with the Boston Bruins doing what they have quietly done all week: winning. Fraser Minten scored twice, Charlie McAvoy scored in his season debut, and Boston beat the San Jose Sharks 6-3 at SAP Center on Tuesday night, closing out Frozen Frenzy — the league's annual 16-game marathon in which all 32 teams play — with the Bruins' third consecutive victory. Reuters reported that Jeremy Swayman made 35 saves and that McAvoy, back from a six-game suspension, led every Boston skater with 24 minutes and 41 seconds of ice time, as if he had never been away.

A Debut Six Games Late

McAvoy's season began on Tuesday because the league said it could not begin sooner. The Associated Press reported that the defenceman was suspended for the first six games for slashing Buffalo's Zach Benson late in Game 6 of last spring's first-round playoff series, the game in which Boston was eliminated. He wasted almost none of his return. At 18:43 of the first period, with Boston already ahead on Minten's opener, JJ Peterka collected the puck on a rebound and found McAvoy in front of the net, and the wrist shot put the Bruins up 2-1 — a defenceman's goal scored from a forward's office, in the first period of his first game, in the building farthest from home on the schedule.

The first period had already swung twice. Minten opened the scoring at 12:55, finishing a Casey Mittelstadt setup with a wrist shot, Reuters reported. San Jose answered at 15:29 when Jacob Trouba beat Swayman with a slap shot through traffic from the blue line — Trouba's first goal for the Sharks since joining the team as an unrestricted free agent over the summer. Then came McAvoy, and Boston took a lead into the intermission that it would trade but never fully surrender.

Stenberg's First, and the Young Sharks' Answer

San Jose's equaliser was the night's best story in a losing cause. At 5:48 of the second period, on the power play, Macklin Celebrini sent a cross-ice pass to Ivar Stenberg, and the rookie redirected it past Swayman's skate to tie the game 2-2. It was Stenberg's first NHL goal — the No. 2 overall pick in June's draft opening his account, set up by the franchise's other cornerstone teenager-turned-star. The pair were not done: each finished with a goal and an assist, and Dmitry Orlov collected two assists for the Sharks, Reuters reported.

Boston's response was depth, delivered in a rush. The Bruins did not register a shot on goal in the second period until 7:30 had passed, Reuters noted, and James Hagens rang one off the post — then Matthew Poitras tipped in his own rebound at 8:42 to restore the lead, and Pavel Zacha finished a two-on-one with Morgan Geekie with three seconds left in the period to make it 4-2. Geekie finished with two assists. A period that began with San Jose's most exciting goal of the season ended with the Sharks down two, which is roughly what experience does to promise in October.

One Last Push, Then Minten Again

The Sharks made it a game once more at 5:04 of the third. Boston was called for too many men on the ice, and eleven seconds into the power play Stenberg set up Celebrini for a snap shot that cut the lead to 4-3 — the building's last real surge of belief. Minten ended it at 11:47, tipping in his second goal of the night to restore the two-goal cushion, and Will Borgen scored into the empty net with 1:42 remaining to close the scoring at 6-3. Yaroslav Askarov made 20 saves for San Jose, which has now lost two straight and three of its last four, Reuters reported.

The pattern across Boston's three straight wins is worth naming: six different Bruins scored across this game, the blue line produced two goals, and the goaltender out-saved the shot volume problem whenever San Jose's young forwards tilted the ice. Frozen Frenzy is a television product as much as a hockey night — staggered starts, every team, a whip-around spectacle — and our coverage of the rest of it includes the Golden Knights' win in Nashville and Utah holding off Toronto's comeback. Boston's contribution to the show was the least chaotic game of the night, which is its own kind of statement.

What Comes Next

The road trips diverge from here. Boston's West Coast swing continues Friday night in Anaheim, with McAvoy now fully reinstalled as the minute-eating anchor of the defence and the Bruins carrying a three-game win streak into it. San Jose heads the other direction, visiting Nashville on Thursday, still building around Celebrini and Stenberg and still learning the lesson this game taught in its middle period: the young core can tie a game against a veteran team, and then the veteran team can take it back in about six minutes. The Sharks' future was on the scoresheet twice on Tuesday. The Bruins' present was on it six times. Both things are true, and October is when both get to be.