3 takeaways on Bruins hold off Avalanche comeback bid

The Bruins fourth line opened and closed the scoring. In between, Boston survived a few anxious minutes before beating Colorado 5-3 on Wednesday at Ball Arena in Denver.

The win gave Joonas Korpisalo, who made 21 saves, including 12 in the third period, his first victory as a Bruin.

The Bruins are at Utah on Saturday.

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Cole Koepke, who had one career goal before this year, scored his second goal in the first five games when he redirected a shot from Andrew Peeke past Alexandar Georgiev.

After Colorado tied the game on the power play, Charlie Coyle overcame his season-long slump with a power play goal off an assist from Mason Lohrei through the legs of a defender.

Hampus Lindholm first assisted on a goal by David Pastrnak midway through the second period and then scored one of his own 13 seconds later, giving the Bruins a 4-1 lead. They seemed headed for an easy game against the surprisingly winless Avalanche.

But Colorado got momentum after rookie Matthew Stienburg, playing in his first NHL, beat Nikita Zadorov in a second-period battle. They scored a power play goal in the second period and another at the start of the third period, making the score 4-3.

But with 2:01 left and the Avalanche goalie pulled away, Johnny Beecher stole the puck at center ice and fired into the open net to seal the win.

Below are three takeaways from the Boston win:

BRUIN'S DODGE BULLET — Brad Marchand left the game in the second period with an undisclosed injury and was not on the bench to start the third period. But he returned, first to the bench, then to the ice just over six minutes into the second period.

FOURTH LINE DOES NOT SLOW DOWN — The Bruins' fourth line of Mark Kastelic, Beecher and Koepke has now scored six of the team's 19 goals this season, including two of Wednesday's four goals. Each of the three players has two goals and three assists in five games.

Koepke and Beecher are already plus-9, while Kastelic is plus-8.

Zadorov's penalty minutes are a little concerning — Through five games this season, Bruins defenseman Nikita Zadorov now has 17 penalty minutes after adding seven to his pile with a hit and a hit on Wednesday. The Avalanche scored on all three power plays in the game.