Bruins Blow Past Jets, 4-1

BOSTON -- After scoring two or fewer goals in each of their previous three games, the Boston Bruins cruised to a 4-1 victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday night.

Four players scored in the comfortable victory, sparked by a three-goal second period. Left winger Brad Marchand's dazzler at the 11:37 mark of the second held up as the winner.

Centers Patrice Bergeron and Tim Schaller, and left winger Matt Beleskey also had goals for the Bruins, while center Adam Lowry scored for Winnipeg.

The Boston defense made life easy for goaltender Tuukka Rask, who made 11 saves as the Jets needed 50 minutes to reach double digits on the shot count. Winnipeg goaltender Michael Hutchinson stopped 34 of 38 Bruins shots.

The Bruins (11-7-0) moved above the .500 mark at home (4-3-0) for the first time since their home opener victory over New Jersey on Oct. 20.

The Jets (9-9-2), who were one of the hottest teams in the NHL in November, have lost two straight games by a combined 9-3.

Winnipeg survived the first period despite being outshot 14-4 by Boston. They also killed off overlapping penalties to Dustin Byfuglien and Blake Wheeler, which included a 34-second stretch of 5-on-3 hockey.

The Bruins had a few open looks at Hutchinson's goal during the extended extra-man stretch, but rarely got an undeflected shot through to the Winnipeg netminder.

The Bruins broke the scoreless deadlock 2:01 into the second period, when defenseman Joe Morrow journeyed deep into the Winnipeg zone and found Matt Beleskey from behind the net. Beleskey buried the one-timer for a 1-0 lead on his second goal of the season and Morrow's first point of the 2016-17 campaign.

Marchand made it 2-0 Boston with 8:23 to go in the second period. Zdeno Chara hit Marchand with a pass in stride as he wound through the neutral zone, and he carried momentum toward the Winnipeg net, making a nifty deke before tucking the puck backhanded under Hutchinson.

After being denied on the earlier 5-on-3, the Bruin power play cashed in late in the second. With Mark Scheifele and Byfuglien both in the box for 44 seconds, the Bruins worked a nice tic-tac-toe play with David Krejci feeding Bergeron in the left wing faceoff circle. Bergeron blasted a one-timer for a 3-0 lead with three minutes to go in the period.

While the Bruins' offense dominated the second period, the Jets continued to struggle, putting only three shots on Rask's net for a total of seven through the first 40 minutes. Boston had 13 shots in the second, and a combined 27 in the first two periods.

Schaller continued the Bruins' rout early in the third period, taking a long stretch pass from defenseman Torey Krug at the Winnipeg blue line, walking into the offensive zone untouched, and ripping a wrister past Hutchinson's glove hand for a 4-0 Boston lead.

Lowry put the Jets on the board on their 12th shot, putting in a rebound around Rask with 2:40 to go.

NOTES: The Bruins announced Saturday that backup goaltender Anton Khudobin was sent to their AHL affiliate in Providence for a reconditioning stint. Khudobin started two games before suffering an injury at practice Oct. 24. He was the starter in Providence's game at Springfield on Saturday night. ... The Jets' visit to Boston represented a homecoming of sorts for G Connor Hellebuyck, who played college hockey at UMass Lowell. Hellebuyck's last appearance at TD Garden came in the 2014 Hockey East Championship, in which he posted a 20-save shutout to lead the River Hawks to a 4-0 victory over New Hampshire. ... Bruins RW David Pastrnak missed his second straight game with an upper-body injury. Pastrnak leads the Bruins with 10 goals. ... Jets D Dustin Byfuglien is one point shy of 300 with the team. ... The Jets won't get much rest as they travel to Carolina for a 4 p.m. ET game against the Hurricanes on Sunday afternoon. The Bruins are off until Tuesday, when they host St. Louis.