The Associated Press
Gethin Coolbaugh
BOSTON–Tuukka Rask’s wire-to-wire dominance helped to ensure Charlie McAvoy’s 20th birthday had a happy ending.
Rask was nearly impenetrable over 65 minutes before McAvoy scored the decisive goal in the shootout as the Bruins edged the Jets 2-1 last night.
“A cherry on top of a great effort by our team,” McAvoy said after he improved to 2-for-2 lifetime in shootouts.
After Winnipeg’s Nikolaj Ehlers’ first attempt of the sudden-death portion of the shootout clanged off the post, McAvoy took the puck and meandered up the ice before tucking his shot past Connor Hellebuyck.
“I saw some room on the blocker side and I just wanted to shoot it there before he was able to recover,” McAvoy said of his winning goal.
Rask, meanwhile, made 37 saves and recorded a point for his eighth-straight game (7-0-1) as the Bruins beat the Jets for the fourth-straight time.
It was the first shootout victory for Rask in four tries since Nov. 3, 2016 against Tampa Bay.
“Whenever the [Winnipeg] break-outs happen, then the quality chances I guess happen, too, and become dangerous, so it happened a few times today,” Rask noted.
“But we battled through and survived.”
Torey Krug added his sixth goal of the season for Boston (18-10-5), which won its third-straight and sixth of its last eight.
Patrik Laine scored his team-leading 18th goal for the Jets while Hellebuyck had 32 saves.
“We had some good chances to score before my goal but [Rask] was good tonight and it was hard to get the puck past him,” Laine said.
Winnipeg (20-10-6) had its two-game winning streak snapped.
The Jets only have won once in Boston since the franchise relocated to Winnipeg in 2011.
Two goals less than a minute apart midway in the third period accounted for the only action through 65 minutes.
Rask and Hellebuyck matched each other before Krug’s wrister from the point beat Hellebuyck glove-side with 11:44 to go.
Laine answered just 57 seconds later–rifling a wrist shot past an out-of-position Rask off a feed from Ehlers.
“It’s a grinder and no fun to play [in], and we did a good job of staying in that [game],” said Jets’ head coach Paul Maurice.
The Jets next visit the N.Y. Islanders tomorrow.
Edmonton edged St. Louis 3-2. San Jose topped Vancouver 5-4 (OT), Tampa Bay nipped Ottawa 4-3 (SO), Pittsburgh shaded Columbus 3-2 (SO), and New Jersey downed the N.Y. Rangers 4-3 (SO).
Dallas blanked Chicago 4-0, Anaheim topped the N.Y. Islanders 5-4 (OT), Carolina beat Nashville 4-1, and L.A. doubled Colorado 2-1 (OT).
