Reunited on the No. 1 line, David Pastrnak, Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand combined for five points Thursday night as the Bruins won 4-1 in Columbus to even the best-of-seven Eastern Conference playoff series at two games apiece. Game 5 is Saturday in Boston.
Bergeron scored twice, Pastrnak added a goal and an assist and Marchand had an assist in the victory.
"I don't think any team wins without their best players being their best players," Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. "We can survive for a while. So far in this series we had."
The trio combined for 260 points in the regular season, but had been held to one point -- a Pastrnak goal in Game 2 -- in the first three games of the series, and Pastrnak had been dropped to the second and then third line in an effort to provide more balance throughout the lineup.
"If you break down the chances we've had game to game, we are getting five, six opportunities every game," Marchand said. "It's only a matter of time before these guys score goals. You give them that many opportunities every game, they are going to score. They are that good. There is no panic."
Both of Bergeron's goals came with a man advantage.
"Their top guys score some goals on the power play, we gave them a chance to get going now by just sitting in that box too much," Columbus coach John Tortorella said. "That's the hard part of this game."
Goaltender Tuukka Rask also came up big for the Bruins by stopping 39 shots -- including a penalty shot in the first period to keep the Blue Jackets from tying the score.
Bergeron scored 26 seconds later to give the Bruins a 2-0 lead.
"Goalies get hot this time of year. Tuukka played great. We'd love him to stay hot, but to rely on your goalie to win games for you is bad form," Cassidy said. "He certainly did his part ... but (in) general you need your top guys going."
The lone goal the Blue Jackets scored was a controversial one, as replays showed a deflected shot went off the protective netting above the glass and came back onto the ice, with Oliver Bjorkstrand feeding Artemi Panarin to make it 2-1 midway through the first period.
"It's easy to lose your composure when something like that happens, something out of (your) control," Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy said. "Credit to us to staying with it, realizing there's still a lot of hockey to be played."
Overall, Tortorella and Blue Jackets players seemed happy with how they're playing entering Game 5.
"It's the series, man," Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno said. "It's 2-2, and this is what we thought it was going to be, so I'm not too concerned. We obviously need to tighten up in certain areas, make sure our (penalty) kill is a little bit better."
Added defenseman Seth Jones: "Obviously, it stings right now, but it's a series for a reason. We knew it wasn't going to be an easy series against a team that has been there and done that. Game 5 is obviously a pretty big one."
