BOSTON — Charlie Coyle scored late in the third period, Jaroslav Halak stopped 24 shots for his second shutout of the season, and the Boston Bruins beat the Carolina Hurricanes 2-0 Tuesday night for their eighth straight win.
David Krejci also scored for Boston, just 1:08 after Coyle got the Bruins on the scoreboard.
James Reimer finished with 32 saves for the Hurricanes.
Both goalies took shutouts deep into the third before Coyle redirected a pass from Brad Marchand past Reimer with 4:05 left.
Boston struck again quickly on Krejci’s shot from the point as the Bruins extended their longest winning streak of the season and improved to 9-0-3 in their last 12 games.
Danton Heinen had an assist on Coyle’s goal. Charlie McAvoy and David Pastrnak picked up assists on the goal by Krejci, who centred Boston’s top line with Patrice Bergeron out of the lineup.
The Bruins haven’t lost since falling at Detroit 4-2 on Nov. 8.
Jacob Slavin appeared to score for Carolina on a backhand with 2:08 left in the second, but the goal was waved off following a challenge by the Bruins. Halak skated straight for the referees, arguing that the puck slipped under the goal when he bumped it. Replays showed Halak was correct and the game remained scoreless.
Carolina had another great chance a few minutes earlier when Nino Niederreiter hit the post on a backhand from in front of Halak, who got his 49th career shutout.
NOTES
Halak was playing in his 500th career game. … It was the first meeting between Boston and Carolina since the Bruins swept the Hurricanes 4-0 in the Eastern Conference finals. … Bergeron was out for the seventh time in nine games with a lower-body injury.
UP NEXT
Hurricanes: Host San Jose on Thursday night.
Bruins: Host Chicago on Thursday night.
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Doug Alden, The Associated Press