National Hockey League
Boston 6, Arizona 2
When: 9:00 PM ET, Saturday, October 14, 2017
Where: Gila River Arena, Glendale, Arizona
Referees: Francois St. Laurent, Brad Watson
Linesmen: Andrew Smith, Kiel Murchison
Attendance: 14810

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- The Boston Bruins simply don't lose to the Arizona Coyotes, especially on a night when defenseman Zdeno Chara was playing as if were a couple of decades younger against an Arizona team that's yet to win this season.

Chara, still a dominant player at age 40, had a goal and matched his regular-season career high with three points as the Bruins rode a three-goal second period to a 6-2 victory over the still-winless Coyotes on Saturday night.

"He (Chara) continues to be a great hockey player -- he steps up at the right time, he always comes up big in important games," left wing Brad Marchand said. "We'd lost a couple in a row, needed a boost and he gave it to us. He's going to be a Hall of Famer for a reason."

Marchand, David Pastrnak and rookie Jake DeBrusk -- the son of former Coyotes player Louie DeBrusk-- each had a goal and an assist and backup goaltender Anton Khudobin stopped 29 of 31 shots in his first start of the season.

Boston (2-2-0) has won 11 in a row against the Coyotes since 2010. Arizona remains the Western Conference's lone winless team at 0-4-1 overall and 0-2-1 at home.

This is the first time in the franchise's 38-year NHL history that the Coyotes are winless after five games.

"I'm embarrassed, I apologize to the fans because that second period was chaos ... it was not a good one," first-year coach Rick Tocchet said. "When pressure, adversity hits this team, they just forget where to go, they just start running around. And that's the dumbfounding thing to me."

A perplexed Tocchet said his young team -- eight players were 22 or younger at the start of the season -- might require harder, longer practices, road curfews or other punitive measures.

"We're going to straighten it out, (or) we have to get new people in here," Tocchet said. "It just can't continue this way ...We don't want this thing to spiral out of control. You don't want to babysit players but it's got to get harder out there. ... I hate doing that stuff but we might have to do it."

Mario Kempe scored his first NHL goal for Arizona to open the scoring at 15:31 of the first period, but the Bruins recorded the next four goals against Arizona backup goaltender Louis Domingue (23 saves).

"I've got to be better. I've just got to be better," said Domingue, who is filling in for the injured Antti Raanta (lower body).

Pastrnak tied it only 36 seconds following Kempe's goal when Chara's one-timer from above the right circle deflected off his left leg. Chara has long had one of the NHL's hardest slap shots.

"As soon as the puck hit me, I was like, it'd better go in because it hurt -- it was a Big Z shot," Pastrnak said. "Obviously, I'm happy it went in."

DeBrusk scored similarly on a power play 1:39 into the second by tipping in David Krejci's one-timer from left point, and Chara -- the multi-time All-Star defenseman and former Norris Trophy winner -- put in his own rebound at 5:03 after Arizona center Max Domi's turnover at mid-ice.

"Their D (defense) likes to be aggressive and they'll leave the front of the net open, and we were able to expose it and get rewarded," Boston coach Bruce Cassidy said.

Later in the third, Chara's long breakout pass wrapped around boards and directly onto Marchand's stick in the Arizona end. Marchand got loose on a short breakaway and put a backhander under the crossbar for his third goal in four games.

"He (Chara) wanted to make a difference tonight, and he deserves a lot of credit," Cassidy said.

Arizona finally scored again when Oliver Ekman-Larsson netted his franchise-record 41st power-play goal by a defenseman with 3:35 remaining. But Boston again answered quickly as Tim Schaller scored his second of the season 23 seconds later, and Anders Bjork added his first NHL goal with 1:23 to play.

NOTES: Boston has won seven straight at Arizona. ... Bruins C Patrice Bergeron (lower body) missed his fourth consecutive game. ... The Coyotes were without G Antti Raanta (lower body), their No. 1 goalie. He was pulled after one period Thursday against Detroit and has played only one full game this season. ... Bruins G Tuukka Rask, who started the first three games, is expected to start Sunday night at Vegas. ... Bruins C David Backes (diverticulitis) is skating again but remains out indefinitely. ... Boston started Austin Czarnik on the third line centered by Matt Beleskey and sat down RW Frank Vatrano.
Top Game Performances
 
Boston   Arizona
Zdeno Chara 3 Points Oliver Ekman-Larsson 1
Zdeno Chara 1 Goals Oliver Ekman-Larsson 1
Zdeno Chara 2 Assists Jason Demers 1
Jake DeBrusk 1 Power Play Goals Oliver Ekman-Larsson 1
N/A Short Handed Goals N/A
Anton Khudobin .935 Save Percentage Louis Domingue .793
Anton Khudobin 29 Saves Louis Domingue 23
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Shots Goals Power Play Penalty Kill Penalty Mins Face Offs Won
Boston 29 6 2-3 2-3 6 36
Arizona 31 2 1-3 1-3 6 34
Upcoming Games
  • Arizona will play their next game on the road against Dallas. The Coyotes have a W/L % of .000 after a win and .000 after a loss.
  • Boston will play their next game on the road against Vegas. The Bruins have a W/L % of .000 after a win and .667 after a loss.