Brad Marchand's five-point night carried the Boston Bruins past the Carolina Hurricanes 5-2 in Game 4 of their Eastern Conference first-round series at TD Garden.
"To be honest, five points doesn't mean anything, personally", he said. "At the end of the day, if you have 10 points individually and lose, it doesn't matter.
"If you have no points, and you win, you're just as happy. So it doesn't matter in our room who scores or who puts up points. It's a team win or loss."
Patrice Bergeron had a goal and two assists, David Pastrnak and Jake DeBrusk each had a goal and an assist while Jeremy Swayman made 24 saves for Boston.
"I think early on, they tested us for sure. On our breakouts, I don't think we're as clean as we wanted to be", said Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy.
"Getting some momentum here will be a positive. ...It's great to even [the series] and get back into it, but we haven't won anything but getting back to even."
Jordan Staal had a goal and an assist, and Brett Pesce scored for Carolina. Antti Raanta made 23 saves in his return to goal after leaving Game 2 with an upper-body injury when he took a hit from Pastrnak.
"It's tough. They're too good a team to just give them goals. We have no chance if that's going to happen", remarked Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour.
"It starts over now. We'll just regroup. You should have emotion right now, it should hurt, and it should bother you. Then tomorrow you start fresh, and we're excited we've got another game to play."
Story of the game
Pesce put Carolina in front with 5:52 left in the first period with a wrist shot off of a rush with Staal and Max Domi.
"That felt good, but not as good as I would have liked after the game", he said. "[Staal], what a pass. It fell right no to my stick, and I just tried to get it on net. Thankfully, it went in."
Marchand tied the game 2:03 later. After Pastrnak's pass hit the back of the net, the Boston winger put the puck in to the right of the crease.
"I think it was a great effort, overall. We talked about taking it a game at time, even when we got down 2-0 [in the series]. It's all about the next game. Here we are, and now it's all about Game 5", Bergeron said.
"You have to build some momentum and confidence. We did that in Game 3 and tried to carry that into this afternoon."
Just 33 seconds into the second period, Staal gave Carolina the lead again as he beat Swayman with a one-timer from the slot off a no-look pass from Nino Niederreiter from behind the net.
DeBrusk tied it for a second time on the power play as during a scramble around the crease, Raanta couldn't find the puck. Carolina challenged for goalie interference, but the goal was upheld after video review.
"I didn't have it covered", but I felt like if you can take the goalie out his balance, and then score, it should be goalie interference", Raanta said. "I had a good conversation with the referee, and it is what it is.
"It's one of those where you just have to regroup and get back to work. It's frustrating."
Early goals continued to be the theme as Marchand gave Boston the lead for good just 43 seconds into the third period as his wrist shot on a two-man advantage.
He assisted on Pastrnak's goal with a cross-crease pass that made it 4-2 and he added an empty-netter with 35 seconds left.