Breaking Apart the Bruins Win in Edmonton

The Boston Bruins (21-18-2) snapped their six-game losing streak on Wednesday night. Boston earned a 6-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers (20-15-6), and can attribute it to strong goaltending, winning the special teams battle, and goal-scoring from both sides of the ice. 

“We’ve done it before (against Colorado)… nobody thought we could win that game, and we did,” Sturm said before Wednesday’s game. “We got out of it, we got out of that slump. Can we do it tonight, too? Yeah, we can. These are the games sometimes that will help you moving forward. But it’s easier said than done. We just got to make sure we go game by game, period by period, shift by shift, to do the right things.”

The Bruins did as Sturm mentioned earlier in the day. They took it period by period and shift by shift. The parade of Bruins’ goals began with David Pastrnak on the power play. As a five-on-three opportunity expired, Pastrnak played the puck from behind the net and shot it off Connor Ingram and into the net. 

Then, Casey Mittelstadt made it 2-0 for the Bruins in the last two minutes of the first period. 

Enter Jeremy Swayman, who stood on his head, making 34 saves in the win.

“We were up 1-0, 2-0, every time they pushed, he had an answer,” Sturm said about his goaltender. “He was outstanding.” 

Swayman made crucial stops whenever he could to keep the Bruins in this game. Plenty of them came against Connor McDavid, who had breakaway chances and scoring opportunities on the power play, but could not beat Swayman. 

“Yeah, he’s an unbelievable player,” Swayman said of McDavid after the game. “He’s a force to be reckoned with, and I think we did a good job of shutting him down and keeping him at bay.”

McDavid did factor in Zach Hyman’s goal in the first period, giving the Oilers their first goal of the night. 

The Bruins would add to their lead in the second period, extending it to three goals. Both goals came from the Bruins’ blue line. Hampus Lindholm connected on one of his attempts, and Jonathan Aspirot tapped in a loose puck at the net front. 

Boston would get two more goals in the third period, the first coming from Elias Lindholm. Lindholm’s shot bounced off Connor Ingram and went into the net. David Pastrnak closed the scoring for the night to give the Bruins a 6-2 lead; he also scored the first goal of 2026. 

Morgan Geekie assisted on Lindholm’s goal, marking his 200th career point. 

The Bruins would give the Oilers five power play opportunities on Wednesday. But the Bruins would kill all five of the Oilers’ chances, stopping the league’s best power play every single time. Eight of Jeremy Swayman’s 34 saves came while the Oilers were on the power play.

“They have such a great power play.” David Pastrnak said. “They recover every puck, but our guys stay composed and together, and when they could be aggressive, they were. They cleared a lot of pucks.”

Coupled with Marco Sturm’s pregame message, the penalty kill, “outstanding” goaltending, and goals from five different skaters helped the Bruins snap a six-game losing streak on Wednesday night. Factor in a power play goal for the Bruins as well, and as Marco Sturm said, “everything worked out.”

“I think everyone’s sick of losing,” Sturm said after the game. “I’m just proud of the way we played today, the way we came out. I don’t think a lot of people thought we can grab two points here tonight, but we did. And also the fashion, or the way that we did it was pretty good.” 

The losing streak starts and ends with the Oilers. The Boston Bruins picked up a meaningful two points on Wednesday night, and did so in their first win since December 16. The Bruins will play the Canucks next, the game is in Vancouver on Saturday night. The Bruins are looking to avenge the shootout loss at the TD Garden on December 20.