SAN JOSE \u2013\u2013 When asked what he has learned about consistency in the NHL, Fraser Minten had a short answer.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s difficult,\u201d he said. \u201cWork in progress.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u200bThe 22-year-old forward has seemingly been a quick study. Minten, who now leads the Boston Bruins with four goals, scored twice in the team\u2019s 6-3 win over the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday at SAP Center. It came after Minten logged three points on Saturday, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way he plays and thinks the game is very impressive at his age. We try to push him every day,\u201d head coach Marco Sturm said. \u201cIt always goes back to being at the right spot at the right time. I think that is it. Playing so smart, I think he\u2019s going to get the opportunities. And right now, they go in. The complete game he plays right now \u2013 that\u2019s the most important thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Minten opened the production for the Bruins in the first period. Nikita Zadorov settled the puck in the neutral zone and chipped it over to Casey Mittelstadt, who carried it below the goal line before hitting an on-the-go Minten up top for the 1-0 lead at 12:55. It extended Mittelstadt\u2019s point streak to three games; he has two goals and one assist through that stretch.<\/p>\n
\u201cShot from the slot, and traffic and coming off the bench, you\u2019re kind of lost,\u201d Minten said. \u201cSo just tried to get it on and off the stick as quick as I could.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jacob Trouba tied things 1-1 at 15:29 with a slapshot, but the Bruins responded by the end of the period.<\/p>\n
It did not take long for Charlie McAvoy to get back to his game. The alternate captain, who made his season debut after serving a six-game suspension, cashed in off a gritty shift from him, his defensive partner Hampus Lindholm, and the second line of Minten, Marat Khusnutdinov and JJ Peterka.<\/p>\n
The B\u2019s maintained possession as McAvoy poke-checked the puck away from a Shark. Peterka gathered it by the left post and zipped it in front for McAvoy to knock in at 18:43. It was Peterka\u2019s third assist in two games, and a welcome return for No. 73.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was nice. I thought that was a big-boy shift. We were trying to hold onto the puck \u2013 something that we had talked about before the game. Them being a man-on-man team, just to try to break them down and hold onto the puck,\u201d McAvoy said. \u201cIt was a good shift, and then that was just a great pass by JJ. Was really happy to be on the other side of that and be able to contribute in my first game back.\u201d<\/p>\n
McAvoy was all smiles heading to the bench to fist-bump his teammates.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was actually a little worried because he was so excited. It was almost like, hopefully he\u2019s not too excited. But the way he played was unbelievable,\u201d Sturm said. \u201cVery calm, in control all the time, making plays, always there at the right spot. We\u2019re just very lucky to have him. The way he played today was pretty impressive.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2013\u2013 When asked what he has learned about consistency in the NHL, Fraser Minten had a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[88,90,89],"class_list":["post-495799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}