The Bruins scored their third goal of Thursday night’s game in the closing minutes of the second period on a scramble by the second line, with each of the three forwards crashing the net and attacking the puck.
It was very unclear after the puck popped up in the air and bounced off a Winnipeg defender’s glove as to which player actually scored the goal. It was eventually credited to Viktor Arvidsson, but Arvidsson, Pavel Zacha, and Casey Mittelstadt all stood there in comic bewilderment, not sure as to which player should lead the fist bump honors as the goal scorer.
Just credit the whole line for this goal 🖊️ 😏 pic.twitter.com/SmTvXQO7Nc
— NESN (@NESN) March 20, 2026
“Yeah, it took a long time for us to figure it out…we still haven’t figured it out,” said a smiling Arvidsson. “It’s fine. It went in, and that’s the most important thing.”
The three forwards had a good laugh about it after the game while helping power the Bruins to a 6-1 thrashing of the Winnipeg Jets at TD Garden on Thursday night. The victory keeps the Bruins implanted in the No. 1 wild card playoff spot, but it is going to be a wild finish with three playoff spots essentially for four teams in Boston, Detroit, Columbus and the New York Islanders that have just a single point separating them in the Eastern Conference standings.
All three forwards finished with multi-point nights, with Pavel Zacha scoring his career-best 23rd goal of the season, Arvidsson creeping close to the 20-goal mark as well, and Mittelstadt on pace to get around the 15-goal mark this season. It’s outstanding production for a second line that was way too underrated at the start of the season as fans, media and puck prognosticators everywhere expected the Bruins to struggle generating offense.
Instead, Zacha, Arvidsson, and Mittelstadt have consistently provided it all year through hard-working shifts and on-ice chemistry that can’t be replicated or faked.
“I think we have fun together. We talk about stuff and joke about stuff on the bench together,” said Arvidsson, who scored his 19th goal of the season in the victory. “I think that’s the most important thing and that creates chemistry. We’re just really connected and we know where each other are and what the other guys like to do. It’s just a really good mix of speed, playmaking skills and people going to the net too.
“Being around there [at the net], you want to score. We’re never happy with a shift. We just want to be better and better, and I think that’s a part of it.”
The ringleader, of course, is Zacha as he’s putting together an excellent all-around season from the pivot position, with two goals in their OT loss in Montreal and another score on a sniped one-timer dropping to one knee on Thursday night.
“I think it’s the work ethic,” said Zacha. “When we have pucks on our sticks we can make plays, but we’re winning way more puck battles in the offensive zone and that helps us create chances. So that’s one of the things that we do when we have good things. We just have to keep going.”
Zacha, in fact, has been red-hot with eight goals scored in 12 games since the Olympic break while admittedly taking it out on NHL defenses after a concussion forced him to miss out playing for Czechia in the Olympics.
“Missing the Olympics was something that wasn’t great for me, mentally. But I was thinking about the whole time how can I come back and be a difference-maker. Just kind of focusing on the little things, winning puck battles and the faceoff dot,” said Zacha. “I know with our power play and our lines we were going to have a good push here, and that’s something that I focused on.
“I’m happy that it’s going in now but even before that we’ve played a lot in the offensive zone, and we’ve been creating. Just sometimes the puck goes in more for some players than others.”
The Bruins second line has been the only trio that’s stayed together pretty consistently while Marco Sturm has
