Recap: Bruins score four in the second, hold on late to beat New Jersey, 4-3

A first-period deficit, a four-goal surge, holding on late...just like they drew it up!

You rarely ask for a pretty win in the second night of a back-to-back, and the Bruins did enough to skate out of Newark and into the Christmas break with a 4-3 win.

The win was the Bruins’ second in 24 hours and has them heading into the break with a record of 27-4-2, which is, by my calculations, pretty good.

New Jersey started the scoring with a power play goal late in the first period, as Jack Hughes beat Linus Ullmark to make it 1-0 New Jersey.

The Devils headed into the intermission with the lead, but the second period very quickly became The Boston Bruins Hockey Extravaganza.

Patrice Bergeron tied the game with a deft deflection just three minutes into the period. 1-1 game.

David Pastrnak took advantage of a big rebound and a bit of a lucky flub to make it 2-1 Bruins just over a minute later.

Speaking of David Pastrnak, here he is doing more David Pastrnak things about five minutes later, making it 3-1 Bruins.

Jake DeBrusk would cap the Bruins’ surge with two and a half minutes left in the period, as the Devils evidently decided he wasn’t worth covering directly in front of the net. 4-1 Bruins.

The B’s held the Devils at bay for the first half of the third, but then Juicy Rebound Hour began, with Tomas Tatar putting the first one home to make it 4-2 Bruins.

Yegor Sharangovich would cash in on another rebound just over two minutes later, making it a 4-3 Bruins lead.

But that was all she wrote. The Devils knocked on the door a few times down the stretch, including with the goalie pulled, but the Bruins did enough to keep them at bay.

It got a little dicey at the end, but a win is a win — 4-3 Bruins final.

Game notes

• They’ve slowed down a bit from their torrid season-opening pace, but the Devils are still a good team. The fact that the Bruins beat them in the second game of a back-to-back (the Devils were off Thursday) and steamrolled them in the second period is pretty impressive.
• There were just three penalties (all minors) in the game, as both sides managed to stay pretty disciplined.
• Three Bruins had multi-point nights: Pastrnak (2G), DeBrusk (1G, 1A), and David Krejci (2A).
• The Bruins Tweeted out a surprising stat at game’s end: Pastrnak’s two goals tied him with Bobby Orr on the Bruins’ all-time goals list. Obviously no one is making a direct comparison between the two and Orr was much more of a playmaker, but it goes to show how prolific Pastrnak has been since becoming a regular.
• Pastrnak’s two goals give him 24 in 33 games, a 59-goal pace over a full 82-game season. Just where you want to be when you need a new contract! (You can hear Don Sweeney breaking out in a cold sweat from here.)
• The Devils came into this game among the league’s stingiest teams in 5v5 goals against, making it even more impressive that the B’s went out and hung four even-strength goals on them.

The Bruins will now be off for a few days before returning to the scene of one of their few regulation defeats, facing the Senators in Ottawa on Tuesday before heading right back to Newark on Wednesday.

Merry Christmas to all!