Bruins strike early, hold off Golden Knights 4-3 for 9th win in 11 games.

BOSTON (AP) — Charlie McAvoy started a three-goal flurry in a 54-second span in the first period, David Pastrnak had a goal and two assists and the Boston Bruins held off the Vegas Golden Knights 4-3 on Thursday night.

Boston won for the ninth time in 11 games.

Elias Lindholm and Tanner Jeannot also scored for the Bruins, who made the Golden Knights pay after a double minor for high-sticking was assessed to forward Tomas Hertl at the nine-minute mark of the opening period. Appearing in his second straight game, Joonas Korpisalo made 29 saves.

Vegas cut a 4-0 deficit in half during the opening minutes in the third period behind goals from Jack Eichel and Tomas Hertl. The Golden Knights made it three straight when Pavel Dorofeyev scored with 2:35 left with goalie Akira Schmid off for an extra skater.

Schmid remained in net after a shaky sequence that began when McAvoy blasted one from just inside the blue line for his fourth goal of the season. The goal came 10 seconds into the four-minute power play.

Boston kept charging and made it two power-play goals in 30 seconds when Lindholm scored between the circles for ninth goal of the season. Pastrnak assisted on both power-play goals.

Jeannot capped the spree off a feed from Sean Kuraly with 9:54 left.

The Bruins made it 4-0 in the second period when a nice move by Nikita Zadorov resulted in Pastrnak rifling one past Schmid for his 21st goal of the season

Up next

Golden Knights: At Toronto on Friday night.

Bruins: Host Montreal on Saturday night.