Avalanche continue to dominate Bruins in Boston
BOSTON -- Nate Mackinnon was 2 1/2 years old the last time the Colorado Avalanche lost a hockey game at TD Garden.
Thursday night, Mackinnon scored a shorthanded goal to help the Avalanche, who haven't lost in Boston since 1998, end a six-game losing streak with a 4-2 victory over the Boston Bruins.
The win lifted the Avs, who came in with an NHL-worst 19 points, to 10-0 plus one tie in the 11 games since their last road loss to the Bruins.
The Avs came in 0-5-1 in their last six games but handed the Bruins their second loss in as many nights.
After Matt Duchene scored his 10th goal of the season -- all on the road -- Mackinnon made it 2-0 with his seventh, the team's second short-handed goal of the season.
A John Mitchell goal (his first) made it 3-0 before the sizzling David Pastrnak scored his 17th and 18th goals of the season by beating Calvin Pickard 80 seconds apart. But Carl Soderberg beat Anton Khudobin to answer that goal.
Pickard made 29 saves to raise his record to 5-2-1 -- No. 1 starter Semyon Varlamov is 5-12-0.
Khudobin made 17 stops but fell to 1-4 -- the Bruins 1-7 in games not started by Tuukka Rask, who shut the Avs out 2-0 Nov. 13.
Pastrnak has his 18 goals in 23 games and -- five in the last three. He is 11 goals ahead of anyone else on the team.
Duchene opened the scoring during a 4-on-4 situation, the Bruins giving him too much time to get control of the puck in front of the net before he beat Khudobin 5:30 into the game. Later in the period, MacKinnon cashed in off a crazy play.
The Bruins were on the power play when Boston's Torey Krug was hit with a pass that left him awkwardly trying to keep the puck in the Colorado zone. He kept the puck on the line but fell, allowing MacKinnon to pick up the puck and sail in alone for the shorthanded goal.
Mitchell scored his first goal in 28 games dating to last season when he beat Khudobin from a bad angle 4:09 into the second period.
Pastrnak was off for his second penalty of the game when he emerged from the box and took a pass from Tim Schaller before breaking in alone on Pickard. The goalie made a dazzling save but Pastrnak converted his own rebound at 12:03.
Pastrnak then scored again, this time from the slot off a Brad Marchand pass 1:20 later.
The Bruins had just killed off a penalty when Soderberg scored against his former team.
NOTES: Colorado LW Gabriel Landeskog, hoping to return from a lower body injury, was slowed by illness and missed his 10th straight game. ... The Bruins' 10-game home winless streak against the Nordiques/Avs coming in was one game longer than the 0-7-2 home drought against the Montreal Canadiens. ... Colorado RW Jarome Iginla, a former Bruin, played in his 1,499th game and is gunning for his 12th 82-game season out of his 20 in the NHL. ... With Florida D Keith Yandle getting hurt in Boston Monday night, ending his 577-game streak, Avs C Carl Soderberg now has the longest active games-played streak, stretching it to 194 on Thursday night. Iginla is second at 188. ... The entire Bruins team will go on a holiday shopping spree for charity Friday. ... The Avs cap their four-game road trip at Montreal and Toronto Saturday and Sunday while the Bruins host the Maple Leafs Sunday and visit Montreal Monday.