Pastrnak’s Hat Trick Helps Bruins Edge Flyers

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

Following a postponement on Tuesday, the Flyers made their return to the ice for the first time since Saturday night's 3-2 overtime loss to San Jose. That night, one player accounted for all of the offense for San Jose. It was deja vu for the Flyers against Boston on Thursday night, as again, one player accounted for all three goals in a defeat.

David Pastrnak scored his 11th career hat trick and third against the Flyers, as the Bruins held on for a 3-2 win at TD Garden, marking the sixth straight loss for the Flyers. 

It took just 1:51 for the Bruins to get on the board. Two failed clears and then a turnover allowed the Bruins to take control, eventually getting the puck to Pastrnak in the slot. He sniped one by Carter Hart to make it 1-0 Boston.

Just minutes later, the Bruins had a power play and made quick work of it. Pastrnak scored the goal again, getting a nice feed from Brad Marchand to make it 2-0 at 5:27.

The Bruins had another power play just moments later, but did not score. The Flyers finally registered their first shot of the game on Tuukka Rask at 9:19 of the period. They ended the period trailing in shots, 12-6.

Much like the first, Boston came out and had seven of the first eight shots of the period. But the Flyers started to rally back midway through the period.

On a power play, Ivan Provorov's shot was deflected by Cam Atkinson and beat Rask to make it a 2-1 game at 8:02.

With five minutes left in the period, Joel Farabee took control of the puck, attempted to feed Atkinson on a rush, but had the puck bounce back to him and knocked it home to tie the game at two.

Just seconds later, the Flyers took a penalty to put Boston back on the power play, and another penalty with 48 seconds remaining on the man-advantage created a 5-on-3. That's where Pastrnak finished off the hat trick, scoring with 3:15 remaining in the period to make it a 3-2 game.

Through two periods, Boston had a 29-15 lead in shots.

The Bruins again had an early push in the third, but Hart kept the margin at one. The Flyers responded with a push of their own for the remainder of the period.

With 7:55 remaining in the third, a delay of game penalty gave the Flyers a power play. Another delay of game penalty 1:09 later gave them 51 seconds of 5-on-3 time. The Flyers were not able to take advantage, and the Bruins held off the Flyers for the final four minutes of regulation with the goalie pulled.

Rask made 25 saves in the win in his return. Hart stopped 33 of 36 shots in the loss.

In addition to Pastrnak's hat trick, Charlie McAvoy had two assists. Atkinson had a goal and an assist, while Keith Yandle had two assists for the Flyers.

The Flyers are back on the ice on Saturday, returning home to face the New York Rangers at 7 p.m.

Box Score

Scoring Summary

1st Period

• BOS David Pastrnak (14) (Erik Haula, Taylor Hall) 1:51
• BOS Pastrnak (15) PP (Brad Marchand, Charlie McAvoy) 5:27

2nd Period

• PHI Cam Atkinson (15) PP (Ivan Provorov, Keith Yandle) 8:02
• PHI Joel Farabee (11) (Atkinson, Yandle) 15:00
• BOS Pastrnak (16) PP (McAvoy) 16:45

3rd Period

• No Scoring

Game Statistics