After a much-needed win for both teams over the weekend, the Boston Bruins continue their five-game Western Conference road trip with a Tuesday night game against the Calgary Flames.
The Bruins bounced back from losses in Winnipeg and Seattle, starting their road trip with a big 5-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday. This was only their fifth game this season scoring more than four goals.
Interim coach Joe Sacco’s team hopes that this victory marks a breakout game for star winger David Pastrnak, who scored a third-period goal after helping with three of Boston’s first four goals. Pastrnak had scored a goal in only two of the previous 13 games.
“Yeah, I’m a goal scorer, but so far I haven’t been this year,” Pastrnak said. “And we were struggling on the power play. It’s been coming (over) the last three or four games. It’s for sure going to be better.”
Though Pastrnak’s goal wasn’t a power play goal, the Bruins have scored on the power play in four of their last six games after a four-game dry spell. The man-up goal in the Vancouver game came from captain Brad Marchand, who is on a six-game point streak.
After this confidence-boosting win, the Bruins also gained a new player. Oliver Wahlstrom, a 24-year-old native of Maine and former first-round draft pick, joined the team for Monday’s practice in Calgary after being claimed off waivers from the New York Islanders.
Wahlstrom, who scored a career-high 13 goals in 2021-22, has played no more than 27 games in the last three NHL seasons. The Bruins believe his game, including his powerful shot, will be a great addition.
“(His shot is) lethal,” said Bruins forward Marc McLaughlin, who played with Wahlstrom at Boston College. “Everyone knows that. … The more he can get that off and play his game that way, I think he’s going to be great.”
Sacco believes Wahlstrom is excited for the chance to show his skills with a new team.
“I think he’s looking at it like a new opportunity, just like most players would,” Sacco said.
Calgary has won two of its last three games after a rough stretch of six losses in seven games (1-4-2), including a 3-0 shutout of the Florida Panthers on Saturday. This win came two nights after an 8-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning to start a five-game homestand.
“It was the response we wanted and needed,” Flames captain Mikael Backlund said.
Backlund scored his first goal in 15 games and added an assist, while Nazem Kadri scored for the third straight game. The Flames also got a strong performance from 23-year-old Dustin Wolf, who made 32 saves for his second shutout of the season and his career.
The Flames are 11-4-1 at home, with four of those wins coming via shutout.
“When we play that way it shows on the ice what we can do,” forward Connor Zary said about the Flames’ last game. “It doesn’t matter who we’re playing and what the other team is doing as long as we’re playing to our structure.”
Wolf, who shares the net with former Bruin Dan Vladar, entered Saturday’s game on a personal three-game losing streak. He made at least 22 saves in each of those games but allowed four or more goals in each.
In the view of coach Ryan Huska, those results were more about the team’s performance rather than Wolf’s play.
“For us, everybody goes through a stretch or two like that, it’s just sticking with it and making sure he knows we continue to believe in him,” Huska said. “Even the games where we got beat and he gave up some goals, I didn’t think he was poor. I just didn’t think the game was as good in front of him.”
