Bruins squeak past Hurricanes in shootout
BOSTON -- David Pastrnak scored the decisive shootout goal as the Boston Bruins beat the Carolina Hurricanes 2-1 Thursday night at TD Garden.
Pastrnak beat the Hurricanes' Cam Ward with a nice deke move and tucked the puck in on the goalie's glove side. Jeff Skinner was stopped by Bruins goalie Anton Khudobin on the other end.
Torey Krug scored his second goal in regulation, and Khudobin made 29 stops for Boston (13-10-1), which had lost five of seven coming in.
The Bruins entered the night second in the NHL with an average 33 shots per game, and they outshot the Hurricanes 35-30.
Noah Hanifin, a native of nearby Norwood, Mass., tallied his second goal of the season for Carolina. He also scored the decisive shootout goal in the Hurricanes' 2-1 victory in Boston last April 5.
The former Boston College standout has three points in three career games at his hometown rink. Hanifin played his 100th NHL game last Sunday against the Florida Panthers.
Ward recorded 34 saves for Carolina (9-9-5), which lost for the fourth time in five games.
Carolina has earned a point in seven of its past 11 games in Boston, going 5-4-2 in that span.
The Hurricanes played much of the first period on tilted ice as the Bruins struggled to keep the puck out of their defensive zone, but Khudobin kept the game scoreless with 12 saves.
Hanifin broke the tie with his blue-line slapper that sailed untouched under the glove of Khudobin on a power play with 12:13 left in the second. Skinner and Derek Ryan were credited with assists.
Matt Beleskey's faceoff violation at 6:33 of the period negated Boston's first power play after Teuvo Teravainen's tripping penalty 1:14 earlier.
Krug scored the equalizer with 31.5 seconds remaining in the third, beating Ward on a shot from the point to force overtime.
Viktor Stalberg committed what could have been a costly hooking penalty on former Carolina forward Riley Nash to give the Bruins a golden power-play chance with 3:07 to go in the extra period, but the Hurricanes killed it off.
Carolina hosts Boston for the second of three meetings this season on Dec. 23 at PNC Arena.
NOTES: Carolina LW Brock McGinn returned to the lineup after missing three games with an upper-body injury. McGinn took the place of C Jordan Staal (concussion), who is out indefinitely. "He's not going to get to 100 percent probably from now to the end of the year, but he should be closer (with rest)," coach Bill Peters said. ... Boston D Zdeno Chara (lower-body injury) skated with the team Thursday morning but missed his fifth straight game. Chara practiced for the first time since sustaining the injury Nov. 22 against the St. Louis Blues. ... Bruins C Noel Acciari (lower-body injury) also returned to practice Thursday. The team announced Nov. 10 that Acciari would miss four weeks. "If he's there, it's because he's inching closer," coach Claude Julien said. Acciari celebrated his 25th birthday Thursday. ... Carolina visits the New York Rangers and Boston is at the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday.