The Bruins’ fourth line opened and closed the scoring. In between Boston survived some anxious minutes before holding on to beat Colorado, 5-3, Wednesday at Ball Arena in Denver.
The win gave Joonas Korpisalo, who made 21 saves, including 12 in the third period, his first win as a Bruin.
The Bruins are in Utah on Saturday.
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Cole Koepke, who had one career goal before this year, second his second in the first five games as he tipped an Andrew Peeke shot past Alexandar Georgiev.
After Colorado tied the game on the power play, Charlie Coyle broke his season-long scoring slump with a power play goal off a Mason Lohrei assist through a defender’s legs.
Hampus Lindholm first set up a David Pastrnak goal near the midway point of the second and then scored one of his own 13 seconds after to give the Bruins a 4-1 lead. They appeared to be headed for an easy one over the surprisingly winless Avalanche.
But Colorado took momentum after rookie Matthew Stienburg, who was playing in his first NHL, got the better of Nikita Zadorov in a second-period fight. They got one power-play goal in the second and another early in the third to make it 4-3.
But with 2:01 left and the Avalanche’s goalie pulled, Johnny Beecher stole the puck at center ice and fired into the open net to seal the win.
Below are three takeaways from the Boston win:
BRUINS DODGE BULLET — Brad Marchand left the game in the second period with an undisclosed injury and wasn’t on the bench to start the third period. But he returned, first to the bench, then to the ice just over six minutes into the second period.
FOURTH LINE NOT SLOWING DOWN — The Bruins’ fourth line of Mark Kastelic, Beecher and Koepke now has six of the team’s 19 goals this season including two of Wednesday’s four goals. Each of the three players has two goals and three assists through five games.
Koepke and Beecher are at plus-9, already, while Kastelic is at plus-8.
ZADOROV’S PENALTY MINUTES ARE A LITTLE CONCERNING — Through five games this season, Bruins’ defenseman Nikita Zadorov now has 17 penalty minutes after adding seven to his pile on Wednesday with a fight and a slash. The Avalanche scored on all three of their power plays in the game.
