Boston Bruins earn first win of season in 6-2 victory over

The Boston Bruins came in reeling at 0-3 after three embarrassing losses in the TD Garden but blistered the Avalanche 6-2 on Wednesday night at the Pepsi Center and dropped Colorado to 1-2.

Center Ryan Spooner had a goal and an assist, and center Chris Kelly and defenseman Kevan Miller also scored for Boston, which avoided its first 0-4-0 start in 51 years.

The Avalanche failed to take advantage of an early power play after the Bruins’ Zdeno Chara was called for holding former Boston teammate Jarome Iginla only 31 seconds into the game. Boston took the season series against the Coyotes comfortably a year ago, outscoring the ‘Yotes a combined 9-to-3, including a 5-2 smackdown in Arizona’s barn.

The Colorado Avalanche came into their third game of the season at home versus the stumbling Boston Bruins looking to make a statement and allay the confidence gained from the third period of their second game against the Dallas Stars into a more consistent effort against a team that should be inferior this season.

It wasn’t an out-of-this-world game by any stretch of the imagination – Gustavsson finished the night with 21 saves on 23 shots against – but Gustavsson had his moments where he stood tall when the B’s needed him to. “When I get the chance, I’m just going to try to make the most of it and play my game”. I thought we did a better job of that overall. It started with the goal which put the B’s up 2-0 in the first and he got better as the night went on. “I’m happy to be here and happy for the win tonight”. The importance of this club finally pushing themselves over the mental block of “strong starts, horrid finishes” is simply massive, although we won’t realize that until you see it on a consistent basis. Moments later, Hayes grabbed a rebound and pushed it in for his first goal of the season. “It felt like it was taking forever to score a goal”.

Boston Bruins found the net again early in the 2nd period with a goal by Tyler Randell at the 3:46 mark and had a tip in assist from Adam McQuaid.

Jimmy Hayes, the first one is always the toughest to earn, right? Varlamov, who stopped just 14 of 19 shots, was then replaced by backup Reto Berra, who stopped all five shots he faced from that point on.

– The honeymoon appeared over for Jimmy Hayes three games into his Bruins career. Hayes stole defenseman Tyson Barrie’s clearing pass at the blue line and fed Spooner in the slot.

The Avalanche, who blew a three-goal lead in the third period to Minnesota last Thursday, finished their season-opening homestand 1-2-0. “Any road team that comes into altitude, you have to jump right on them, especially fragile teams that lost three in a row”. Gustavsson’s matchup isn’t a favorable one, however, as the Avalanche have already netted ten goals through just two games. The Bruins recalled D Tommy Cross from Providence of the American Hockey League, and he played 14:25.