DiPietro Gets His First Shutout on Hockey Fights Cancer Night as Bruins Bury Nashville 6-0

Some nights the hockey writes itself. Thursday at TD Garden was one of them.

Michael DiPietro made 28 saves for his first NHL shutout, David Pastrnak had two goals and two assists, and the Bruins beat the Nashville Predators 6-0. Boston is 8-2-1 and extended its point streak to seven games at 6-0-1, coming home off a 3-0-1 road trip.

Start with the goalie, because this one matters. DiPietro got his first NHL win just last Friday, a 26-save game in a 4-2 win at Anaheim. Six days later he had a shutout, on the Bruins' Hockey Fights Cancer Night. "A little bit stressed out, but obviously you can't write it better," he said. "For me, it means a lot on Hockey Fights Cancer Night. My mom (Becky) passed away when I was 5 from cancer, so it means a lot for me, my family and everyone back home. I just want to make them proud, and this is a real special moment."

He told the Bruins' team site he thought about her all day. "Her death anniversary is next week, and her birthday is the week after. So, it was a heavy day today," he said. His last memory of her, he said, was her coming to the rink while she was very sick, telling people, "Don't come up, I just want to watch my son for a few minutes." The 27-year-old spent six seasons in the AHL and one in the ECHL before making the Bruins out of camp in September. When it was over he was the last guy into the locker room, and the room was waiting for him with a loud ovation and a water shower. "He definitely deserved it," coach Marco Sturm said. He has played seven NHL games, five starts, since debuting Feb. 11, 2019. "It's a dream come true for me to be here," he said. "It really is only a game at the end of the day, but obviously everyone in this room wants to win."

Now the scoring. Casey Mittelstadt opened it at 3:49 of the first after Pastrnak walked around two defenders at the blue line and fed him cross-ice; Mittelstadt's wrister from the left circle beat Justus Annunen high. Elias Lindholm made it 2-0 on the power play at 16:38, redirecting a McAvoy shot from the point.

In the second, Pastrnak tipped a McAvoy shot at 9:46 for 3-0. JJ Peterka made it 4-0 at 17:21, putting Pastrnak's centering pass off the left post and then poking in his own rebound. Mark Kastelic scored on a backhand at 6:50 of the third, and Pastrnak finished it at 15:00 with a wrist shot from the top of the slot.

Charlie McAvoy had four assists, a career high. Pavel Zacha had two. McAvoy opened the season serving a six-game suspension for slashing Buffalo's Zach Benson in Game 6 of last spring's first-round series; since coming back he has six points in five games, NHL.com reported. "We had a focus this morning and we wanted to be crisp," McAvoy said. "We started on time and we just played a really great team game."

Pastrnak has 14 points, six goals and eight assists, in his last seven games. With this one he became the eighth player in Bruins history with 20 career four-point games. The captain cared more about the five different goal scorers. "It's almost like you're waiting for who is it going to be tonight?" he said. "Every line is finding chemistry."

Nashville, now 3-3-3 and losers of four of five, didn't argue. "It wasn't very good. It was our worst effort of the year - by far," coach Andrew Brunette said. "We had too many passengers tonight and probably almost all of them." Captain Roman Josi: "First period, they were a way better team. They had the puck the whole period." Annunen made 25 saves in his first game of the season. Boston has now scored six in a game three times this season.

Dez's take: the Bruins look like a team that actually likes each other, and that's not nothing in October. Five scorers, the captain setting everybody up, the defenseman back from a suspension and playing like he's got something to prove. But the story is DiPietro. Seven years from a debut to a first shutout, and he gets it on the night with his mom on his mind. You don't need me to add anything to that.

Nashville did get forward Mavrik Bourque back after four games out with an upper-body injury; he had three shots in 14:36. Defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin made his season debut. Didn't matter.