Bruins blank Canucks in battle of conference leaders

Brad Marchand and Danton Heinen bookended the first period with short-handed goals and Linus Ullmark made 17 saves to propel the Boston Bruins to a 4-0 win over the visiting Vancouver Canucks in a Thursday night clash of the NHL's top two teams.

The Bruins, who have won three of their last four contests, totaled three goals in the opening minute of periods as Morgan Geekie and Pavel Zacha tallied early in the second. Zacha also picked up an assist on Geekie's goal.

Charlie Coyle and David Pastrnak each had two helpers to contribute to the Boston offense. Coyle is now on a 10-game point-scoring streak.

Vancouver was shut out for the first time since the third game of the season and had a 12-game points streak (10-0-2) snapped.

Thatcher Demko (21 saves) had won his previous nine starts for the Canucks.

Boston had a 25-17 shot advantage. Ullmark made nine saves in the second period.

It appeared to be an inauspicious start for Boston as a Jakub Lauko hold on Dakota Joshua's attempted breakaway put Vancouver on the power play 17 seconds into the game. However, Marchand needed only 15 seconds of the ensuing penalty to give the Bruins an early 1-0 lead.

After Coyle corralled a puck that Demko rimmed around the boards, the Boston captain received a pass and roofed a close-range short-handed goal at the 32-second mark.

That was Marchand's 35th career short-handed tally, tying Dirk Graham and Theo Fleury for the ninth-most in NHL history.

Heinen scored Boston's second man-down goal at 15:37, breaking through the middle of the ice ahead of two defenders after Coyle started the play by breaking up a pass.

Boston's dominant start continued with two goals in a 14-second span early in the middle frame. The quick-fire stretch began at 0:34, as Geekie was the last Bruin to touch a Pastrnak shot that broke his stick and deflected several times on its way past Demko.

The Bruins' lead grew to 4-0 at 0:49. James van Riemsdyk dished a backhand saucer pass to send Zacha in alone from the blue line for a wrist-shot goal.

Nils Hoglander looked to get Vancouver on the board at 12:57 of the second, but officials waved off the potential goal due to high-sticking.