BOSTON — David Krejci returned with a goal and an assist after missing five games with an injury, David Pastrnak scored his league-leading 12th and the Boston Bruins beat the San Jose Sharks 5-1 on Tuesday night.
Chris Wagner also had a goal and an assist as the Bruins won their fourth straight and improved to 6-0-2 in their last eight. Charlie Coyle and Brandon Carlo also scored for Boston.
Tuukka Rask made 16 saves for the Bruins, who outshot the Sharks 41-17 and held San Jose to just six shots in each of the first two periods.
Brent Burns scored San Jose’s only goal. Martin Jones finished with 36 saves for the Sharks, who lost their third straight and went 1-3-1 on a five-game Eastern Conference trip.
The Bruins got power-play goals from Pastrnak and Krejci in the first period and led 2-0 after one.
Burns pulled San Jose within 2-1 on a power-play goal 1:31 into the second, but Boston blew it open with three more goals before the period ended.
Coyle redirected a slap shot by Krejci to put the Bruins up 3-1 at 5:21 of the second, then Wagner slipped a backhand between Jones’ pads on a breakaway to make it 4-1 at 8:31 of the second. It was the first goal of the season for Wagner, who picked up an assist at 16:50 when Carlo scored on a high shot from the point.
It could have been worse for San Jose without some big saves by Jones. Jones made back-to-back saves on Coyle and Sean Kuraly from just outside the crease with about eight minutes left in the period and stopped Wagner on another breakaway just before the buzzer.
There was no scoring in the third period, when the linesmen got a workout keeping several fights from happening with the game already out of hand.
The officials stepped in twice early in the third to keep Zdeno Chara and San Jose’s Evander Kane from fighting. Brett Ritchie and San Jose’s Barclay Goodrow did square off with 7:21 left in a bout that ended after Ritchie landed a string of solid punches. Both got fighting majors and 10-minute misconducts.
NOTES: Boston has outscored its opponents 19-7 during its four-game winning streak. … Krejci returned after missing five straight games with an upper-body injury. … Brad Marchand’s assist on Krejci’s goal in the first extended his point streat to 11 games with assists in each of the last 10. … Pastrnak has at least a point in 10 straight games. … Wagner missed Boston’s win Sunday at New York after blocking a shot Saturday against St. Louis.
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