Halak Gets 22-Save Shutout In 500th Game, Bruins Beat Hurricanes 2-0

Jaro Halak earned his 49th career shutout in his 500th NHL game, stopping all 24 Carolina Hurricanes shots; Charlie Coyle and David Krejci scored 1:08 apart in the final 4:05 and the Boston Bruins won their eighth straight game with a 2-0 win Tuesday night at TD Garden. The Bruins have now won 8 straight games, earned points in 12 straight and are unbeaten at home going 12-0-4 for 28 points in their first 16 games at TD Garden this season.

Coyle – who was parked in front of the night every shift and led the Bruins with six shots – broke the scoreless tie at 15:55 of the final frame. Coyle paid the price in front and the Bruins finally beat Hurricanes goalie James Reimer who made 32 saves. Brad Marchand and Danton Heinen had the helpers on Coyle’s sixth goal of the season.

& that's the game 🙌@CharlieCoyle_3 pic.twitter.com/9wAAPCFsL0

— NESN (@NESN) December 4, 2019

Krejci scored his 200th career goal and sixth of the season at 17:03 and that was all the Bruins would need to extend their point streak to 12 games (9-0-3). Coyle tipped in a Charlie McAvoy shot from the point. David Pastrnak got the secondary assist.

David Krejci with the tip for career goal No. 200! 🚨#IceSurfing pic.twitter.com/3vuiN8VYOZ

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) December 4, 2019

Playing in his 500th game, Halak, as he has been since signing with the Bruins prior to last season, was brilliant and gave his team a chance to win with his usual clutch saves. One of those clutch saves Tuesday night was when he stoned Andrei Svechnikov on a breakaway just over two minutes into the second period to keep the game scoreless at the time. Svechnikov tried to lift it glove side and Halak just caught the puck with the tip of his glove knocking it wide.

Until the final 2:30 of the opening frame, it was a choppy rest of the period that saw both teams go 0-for-2 on the powerplay, plenty of plays die in the neutral zone and the ones that didn’t get scooped up by Halak and Reimer. With 2:08 left in the period though, the Hurricanes and everyone in the building thought that they had tied the game when defenseman Jaccob Slavin went coast to coast and appeared to beat Halak short side but Halak immediately protested the goal. As the replay clearly showed, Halak was right as the puck has literally gone through the side of the net.

Jaccob Slavin scores through the side of the net. Ruled no goal upon review pic.twitter.com/EQLCZ6kXix

— Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) December 4, 2019

Thanks to that and more clamp down defense by both teams, the game remained scoreless after two periods of play. The clampdown grew even tighter in the third period as the teams combined for just eight shots in the first thirteen minutes of the final frame.