Bruins blank Kraken, 2-0

BOSTON — In a perfect world, you would have liked to have seen the Bruins put away the Seattle Kraken earlier than they did on Sunday at the Garden.

But with the way things had been going for the B’s, who are we to argue with a second straight shutout?

The B’s rode a dominant first period and hung on during a wild third period to post the 2-0 victory. It’s the first time they’ve won back-to-back games since Games 2 and 3 of the season. After Joonas Korpisalo post the clean sheet on Saturday in Philadelphia, Jeremy Swayman stopped 23 shots for the victory.

David Pastrnak, meanwhile, did not play in the third period. There was no immediate word what was ailing him.

The Bruins were on their game early and took the first lead of the game just 3:23 in on Justin Brazeau’s fourth goal in six games.

It started with a great play by Charlie McAvoy in his own end. The defenseman gloved down the puck, avoided two Kraken players and then sent long diagonal pass to Brazeau to enter the offensive zone. Eventually, Charlie Coyle then did a good job of protecting the puck to get it back up to mcAvoy at the right point. McAvoy got it over to Nikita Zadorov on the left side. Zadorov snapped a shot toward the net that Brazeau tipped home from out high.

The B’s earned the first power play of the game, and this time, they didn’t let it kill their momentum. The first unit zipped the puck around well until Brad Marchand threaded a pass across the top of the crease to Coyle. Coyle did not one-time it and it appeared he missed his chances, but he made goalie Joey Daccord come out of his net and tucked it in behind him at 9:57.

It appeared the B’s had themselves a 3-0 lead when Pavel Zacha deflected a McAvoy shot past Daccord, but Seattle coach Dan Bylsma challenged for offsides and he was correct. Zacha’s drop pass on his zone entry came out of the zone.

While they could not extend the lead in the first, the B’s were utterly dominant, outshooting the Kraken 15-3 and not allowing a shot on Jeremy Swayman until there was 3:30 left in the opening 20 minutes.

The Kraken, who played a 7 p.m. game in Ottawa on Saturday as opposed to the 1 p.m. start for the B’s in Philadelphia, got their legs going a little better in the second period. Midway through the period it appeared they had something going when Zacha’s stick broke, but Adam Larsson was called for an O-Zone interference.

Coach Jim Montgomery called is timeout before the power play, an unusual juncture, but it did not produce the third goal.

The B’s killed off a Seattle penalty and then got a late power play goal of their own, on which they nearly took a 3-0 lead twice, sandwiched around a Kraken chance to cut the lead in half.

Marchand couldn’t quite wrap the puck around on an empty net and Coyle could not sift it through a tangle of bodies. Then the B’s gave up when the Kraken had a 2-on-1 and Yanni Gourde elected to keep. Swayman was just able to get his blocker arm on it and a couple of B’s dove toward the puck to prevent a rebound chance. Finally, Brazeau fired a shot that created a tantalizing rebound in the crease for Trent Frederic but he couldn’t steer it into the empty net.

In the third period, Matt Poitras took a huge, legal hit behind the Seattle net, but Frederic would not let it go, immediately dropping the gloves with Larsson. He earned the extra two minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct, but the B’s were able to kill it off.

But the Kraken kept pushing. They hit the post and, later, Tye Kartye had a half empty net but he hit McAvoy’s backside.

____