NHL Roundup: Pastrnak Settles It in the Shootout, Colorado Runs Off Five Straight

Four games, and Monday still managed to pack in a blown lead, a five-goal run, a see-saw game in Florida and two first NHL goals. This NHL roundup starts at TD Garden, where the Boston Bruins let a 2-0 lead get away and then let David Pastrnak clean it up in the shootout against the Vegas Golden Knights, detours to Chicago for the night's best comeback, and finishes with a pair of kids — one in Detroit, one in Calgary — scoring goals they will remember for the rest of their lives.

Boston's start was the easy part. Rookie James Hagens opened the scoring at 7:23 of the first period, slipping to the front of the net to put Elias Lindholm's centering feed past Carter Hart on the blocker side, according to Field Level Media's game story. Early in the second, Vegas forward Braeden Bowman was assessed a five-minute major and a game misconduct for elbowing Matthew Poitras in the face, and the Bruins cashed in the power play at 3:23 — Morgan Geekie burying Pavel Zacha's one-time feed from the bottom of the right circle for his second goal in as many games and a 2-0 lead.

Vegas, to its credit, did not fold. The Golden Knights got their own power-play goal at 14:58 of the second, eight seconds into the man advantage: Jack Eichel won the faceoff, Tomas Hertl fired from the bumper, and Mark Stone swept in the rebound for his 10th goal of the season. Trevor Connelly tied it 2-2 at 7:23 of the third, beating a defender to the side of the net to finish Noah Hanifin's dish from behind the goal line. Mitch Marner assisted on both Vegas goals, extending his point streak to 10 games — one goal and 14 assists for 15 points over the run, per NHL.com. Hart finished with 25 saves.

Overtime solved nothing, so Boston's first shootout of the season decided it. Jeremy Swayman, who made 21 saves in regulation and overtime, stopped all three Vegas shooters — Connelly, Eichel and Marner. Pastrnak went last, deked Hart with a backhand-to-forehand move and tucked the puck past his left skate for the only goal of the tiebreaker and a 3-2 Bruins win. His assist on Geekie's goal carried its own weight: it was the 300th power-play point of Pastrnak's career (135 goals, 165 assists), making him the sixth player in Bruins history to reach the mark, per NHL.com. Boston (11-4-1) has won six straight at home and nine of its past 12. Vegas (9-5-2) has lost five of six — and gets no rest, because the road trip moves straight to Pittsburgh on Tuesday, where Sidney Crosby is one point from sixth place in NHL history.

If Boston's game was about losing a lead and surviving, Chicago's was about losing one and not. The Blackhawks led the Colorado Avalanche 2-0 before the game was eight minutes old: Wyatt Kaiser's long wrist shot deflected off Cale Makar's stick and past Mackenzie Blackwood just 57 seconds in, and Roman Kantserov converted a 2-on-1 with Connor Bedard at 7:05. Colorado even had a goal wiped out by a Chicago challenge for goaltender interference. None of it mattered. Nazem Kadri dove to jam a loose puck past Spencer Knight at 15:23 of the first, and Jaden Schwartz one-timed a T.J. Hughes feed 26 seconds later to tie it 2-2.

The second period finished the argument. Kadri tipped home a Makar shot on the power play at 13:38 — moments after drawing the penalty himself — and Schwartz redirected a Sam Malinski shot with 10.6 seconds left in the period for his second of the night. Devon Toews added an empty-net goal at 17:38 of the third to go with an assist, Hughes finished with two assists, and Blackwood made 21 saves in Colorado's 5-2 win. It is a season-best third straight victory for the Avalanche, who also snapped a three-game road losing streak, per Reuters. Chicago (4-10-1) has lost three straight and six of seven. The Blackhawks' night got worse late in the second period, when Patrick Kane left with an injury; Chicago reports describe it as an upper-body injury that will cost him at least the next couple of games. Kantserov's point streak reached five games in the loss, while Colorado's Artturi Lehkonen saw his streak end at nine.

Sunrise hosted the night's most honest hockey game: two teams trading punches until one of them finally strung two together. Carter Mazur, 24, started it for Detroit at 5:26 of the first, scoring his first NHL goal in his 18th career game on a blast from the left circle. Sam Reinhart tied it for Florida in the first, Alex DeBrincat restored Detroit's lead early in the second, and Aaron Ekblad pulled the Panthers level again — four goals, four lead changes of momentum, nobody in control. The pattern finally broke early in the third. Justin Faulk scored the go-ahead goal on the power play, a point shot that found its way under Jacob Markstrom's glove, and Michael Brandsegg-Nygard converted a Lucas Raymond pass in the slot 45 seconds later. Sam Bennett cut it to 4-3 with 3:20 left, but Emmitt Finnie's empty-net goal with three seconds remaining closed a 5-3 Red Wings win.

Faulk added an assist, and Daniil Tarasov made 23 saves to beat his former team, according to Reuters. Markstrom made 24 saves in his first appearance since Oct. 17 — he missed five games with an upper-body injury sustained in practice — and Florida's three-game win streak ended anyway. Detroit is 7-5-3; the Panthers are 8-5-2.

The late game in San Jose belonged to Calgary's fourth line and a goaltender playing in his backyard. Adam Klapka opened the scoring at 14:36 of the first, picking off a cross-ice pass from Sharks defenseman Nolan Allan — sprung by Jonathan Castagna's forecheck — and beating Yaroslav Askarov from the high slot. It stayed 1-0 until 9:14 of the third, when Klapka carried the puck down the right side and found William Stromgren in front; Stromgren batted his own rebound out of the air for his first NHL goal, in his fourth career game and his season debut after posting 11 points in 11 games with the AHL's Calgary Wranglers. Sam Dickinson's first goal of the season at 11:57 gave San Jose life, but Dustin Wolf shut the door with 26 saves in a 2-1 Flames win.

Wolf's relationship with this matchup is personal: he is from Gilroy, California, his family held Sharks season tickets when he was a kid, and he is now 11-2-0 in his career against his hometown team, per Field Level Media. Calgary has won 10 of 11 and 15 of the last 17 meetings with San Jose, a run dating to late in the 2021-22 season. Castagna's two assists were his first career multi-point game, Klapka's goal and assist were his first two-point game of the season, and Macklin Celebrini was held scoreless — six games without a goal since Oct. 20. The Flames (7-8-0) have won six of eight; the Sharks (7-8-1) have lost four of five.

Tuesday is not a breather, either. Beyond Vegas at Pittsburgh, the Edmonton Oilers (11-2-2) visit the New Jersey Devils (9-5-0) in a national TV game — Connor McDavid brings 39 points and a 15-game season-opening point streak to Prudential Center, one night after the fastest run to 30 assists in NHL history. Dallas is at Washington, league-leading Carolina (12-2-2) visits Nashville, Winnipeg is in Montreal, and Anaheim plays at Vancouver. Four games was Monday's portion. Tuesday's table is considerably bigger.