CALGARY — Linus Ullmark is on a roll and so are the Boston Bruins.
Ullmark turned aside 40 shots and Brad Marchand paced the offence with a goal and an assist Saturday to lead the Boston Bruins to a 4-2 win over the Calgary Flames.
That's two or fewer goals against in each of Ullmark's last five starts. He's won four of those games. On the season, he's 7-5-0.
The Bruins have points in five straight games (3-0-2) and have gone seven consecutive games on the road (6-0-1) without a regulation loss.
“You have to be able to rely on your goalie to come up big if you want to be a good team,” said Marchand. “He's got to be able to keep you in it when the other team's putting a lot of pressure on and make the big saves on the kill like he did tonight.”
Ullmark was sharp right from the opening puck drop. After stopping all 15 shots he faced in the first period as the Bruins took the lead, he had to made five saves – including dangerous chances from in close by Andrew Mangiapane and Milan Lucic – on an early second-period Flames power play that kept it 1-0 for the visitors.
The Bruins took control shortly after, surging in front 3-0 on goals 56 seconds apart from Marchand and Charlie McAvoy.
“He came up big, especially in the first two periods again where we were at times hemmed in our end zone a little bit too much,” said Bruins assistant coach Joe Sacco. “He made the quality saves when we needed it.”
Boston took five of six points on its western Canadian road trip.
“A lot of heart,” said Ullmark, who as a free agent last summer signed a four-year, $20-million deal with the Bruins. “We grinded it out and whenever we had the opportunity to put one in, we did it."
Curtis Lazar and Connor Clifton, with his first of the season, also scored for Boston (14-8-2), which is back in action Tuesday when it hosts Vegas.
Matthew Tkachuk and Sean Monahan scored for Calgary (15-7-6), which saw its season-long winless skid extend to four games. Rasmus Andersson had two assists.
Jacob Markstrom had 23 saves in the loss. He dropped to 10-6-5.
“(Ullmark) made some some big saves but at the end of the day, it's on us as a team to get to the dirty areas and go to the net and get those dirty goals,” Monahan said.
The Flames begin a two-game road trip that opens in Chicago on Monday.
“We believe in ourselves. We believe in the group,” Tkachuk said when asked about the mood of the team. “Stay positive, get back to having fun, and having fun winning and enjoying the grind of winning games.”
The Bruins made it 2-0 when David Pastrnak gained the Flames zone, hung onto the puck as he curled back to get some separation from Andersson before getting a shot away that Marchand deftly struck out of the air and over Markstrom's glove.
"(Pastrnak) is very talented up there, just so deceptive,” Marchand said. “When he spins a lot of times he'll look to pass that across the ice so I was kind of waiting on that. He did a great job holding that guy off and getting the puck to the net and luckily that one went in."
McAvoy made it 3-0 when he slid in from the point undetected and used big Flames defenceman Nikita Zadorov as a screen to pick the top corner.
Tkachuk's power-play goal got the Flames on the scoreboard at 12:19, but Boston restored its two-goal cushion three minutes into the third when Markstrom couldn't control the rebound from Trent Frederic's original short and seconds later, Lazar knocked the puck in for his second of the season.
“There are pockets of adversity all the time. You just respond with your effort and your collective game plan in terms of sticking to it,” said Flames coach Darryl Sutter. “If you're a team that doesn't have secondary scoring and you get average goaltending, then you're up against it. So that's the adversity you're facing.”
Notes: The Flames lost in regulation against an Eastern-Conference opponent for just the second time (12-2-3)... Boston defenceman Brandon Carlo (lower body) missed his second game.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 11, 2021.
Darren Haynes, The Canadian Press
