The Boston Bruins have continued their dominant 2022-2023 season by clinching the President’s Trophy for the fourth time in franchise history in a win against the Columbus Blue Jackets Thursday night.

The Bruins entered the game fresh off of a surprising 2-1 loss to the Nashville Predators, a game where their only goal was scored in the final seconds. Going into the game, Columbus was sitting dead last in the NHL standings. With Boston needing just to win in any fashion to clinch the President’s Trophy, they were looking to bounce back from the Nashville loss against a bottom team.

The Blue Jackets managed to strike first when forwards Liam Foudy and Jack Roslovic got a two-on-one just after a failed Boston power play. Foudy gave a cross-ice pass to Roslovic who buried it with a backhand shot to score his tenth goal of the season and give Columbus a 1-0 lead. With no more first-period goals, the game went into the first intermission with the Blue Jackets leading 1-0.

Boston was not going to go down without a fight and got a chance to tie the game when they were given a powerplay about nine minutes into the second period. They took advantage of the opportunity when Tyler Bertuzzi tipped in a shot from Pavel Zacha just over ten minutes into the period to tie the game at one. That sent the game into the second intermission with a score of 1-1.

Neither team was able to get one in the third period, so the game made it to the end of regulation tied at one and went to three-on-three overtime. The overtime period did not last very long as just 41 seconds into it, David Pastrnak continued the career year he is having by managing to sneak behind the Columbus defense, bury a backhand shot for his 53rd goal of the year, and win the game for Boston.

Pastrnak’s goal not only got the Bruins their 58th win of the year but also clinched first place in the standings, awarding the team the President’s Trophy. It is the fourth time Boston has won the award in franchise history and the second time in the last four seasons, also winning it in the 2019-2020 season. Boston is now sitting with a 58-12-5 record and with only seven games left, they only need five more wins to break the NHL all-time wins record.