Even the Boston Bruins — who will celebrate their Centennial Game in less than two months — still experience a first time for everything.
The Bruins’ first Western Conference road trip of the young season continues with another first on Saturday night, playing their first-ever game against the Utah Hockey Club in Salt Lake City.
“I hear the crowd is incredible here, I heard that the energy in (the Delta Center) is very good,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said after Friday’s practice at the Olympic Oval. “That gets (Utah) excited to play at home for the first time in five games.”
Boston opened the three-game trip by dominating the first two periods of a 5-3 victory over still-winless Colorado on Wednesday in Denver.
Montgomery believes it’s time to take away the fourth line label from his trio of John Beecher, Mark Kastelic and Cole Koepke. Both wingers, Koepke and Beecher, scored against the Avalanche to give them each a league-leading plus-9 rating. Kastelic is at plus-8.
“I mean, it’s impressive the way they’ve been playing and they’re earning all the ice time they’re getting, and their details, their work ethic, their puck support of one another offensively and defensively is allowing them to have tremendous success,” Montgomery told the Boston Globe.
Their importance to the group has quickly been realized.
“The whole line’s been amazing for us,” defenseman Hampus Lindholm said, per the Globe. “They’re the hardest workers out there and they earn everything they get.”
Beecher has goals in consecutive games.
Lindholm posted a goal and an assist to lead five Boston scorers against Colorado, while Joonas Korpisalo made 22 saves en route to his first win since being acquired from Ottawa in the offseason.
Utah, meanwhile, is back home following a four-game road trip. Wednesday’s 5-4 overtime loss at Anaheim left Utah just short of becoming only the fourth team in NHL history to win four of its first five games.
Despite allowing a game-tying goal in the third period before falling in overtime, coach Andre Tourigny was pleased with his team’s effort.
“I think they fought really hard. I really like our battle, our competitiveness,” Tourigny said. “I think all in all, there’s a lot of positives.”
Jack McBain and Barrett Hayton scored in the first period for Utah. Hayton already has four goals this season after tallying three in 33 games last season.
Another pair of back-to-back goals by Michael Kesselring and Clayton Keller in the third put Utah ahead 4-3 before Anaheim pulled even with 5:05 left.
Utah has scored at least four goals in every game except for Monday’s 3-0 shutout loss at New Jersey.
“I thought we were solid at times, we just made a few mistakes,” Kesselring said after Wednesday’s loss.
Injuries have forced the Utah Hockey Club to finish consecutive games with five defensemen. Robert Bortuzzo left Wednesday’s game in the third period, though he did return to practice on Friday afternoon.
Sean Durzi, who suffered an upper-body injury on Monday, was less fortunate. He will miss 4-5 months, with surgery possible.
John Marino (upper-body) is also “months” away from returning, Tourigny said.
“You cannot replace those guys,” Tourigny said. “What you have to do is do what you do best for longer. Everybody has to be a little bit more consistent.”
