MONTREAL — David Pastrnak‘s goal midway through the third period was the winner, and the Boston Bruins closed out their record-setting regular season with a 5-4 comeback victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night.
Dmitry Orlov had a goal and an assist. Trent Frederic, Jake DeBrusk and Charlie Coyle also scored for Boston (65-12-5). Jeremy Swayman made 30 saves.
The Bruins closed their Presidents’ Trophy-winning season with records for wins (65) and points (135) in a season.
“We took five minutes and celebrated it and we moved on,” said Swayman, who was awarded the William M. Jennings Trophy along with teammate Linus Ullmark. “We know that there’s a bigger goal in mind. … And we’re going to take that confidence into the playoffs.”
Boston broke the NHL points record with a 5-2 victory over the Washington Capitals on Tuesday. With that win, the Bruins pushed their points total to 133, one more than the 1976-77 Canadiens, and added to it on Thursday. Those Canadiens played in an era without overtime and shootouts. The Bruins’ extra points for shootout wins and overtime wins were unavailable to Canadiens when they set the record.
The Bruins also set the NHL victory record with 63 on Sunday at the Philadelphia Flyers, breaking a tie with the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings and 2018-19 Tampa Bay Lightning.
“I think we appreciate what we’ve accomplished,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said. “But the beauty of sports is you have to have a short memory because two days later, the next day, we’ve got to move on. Three days from now, we start Game 1.”
The Bruins will face the Florida Panthers, last season’s Presidents’ Trophy winners, in the first round of the playoffs.
“They’re a really good team, very dangerous team and we’re going to have to be at the top of our game if we want to have success,” Montgomery said of the Panthers.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Bruins win to cap record-setting regular season, turn attention to playoffs
