With heavy heart, Brad Marchand lifts Bruins over Columbus with hat trick

In his 971 games with the Bruins dating back to the 2009-10 season, Brad Marchand has carried the team in spurts, so what he did over the weekend may not have been all that unusual for him, as notable as it was.

But if you noticed he was playing with a little more than his usual doggedness and determination, you weren’t wrong. On Friday night, he learned that his maternal grandmother, Frances O’Leary, had passed away.

All he did then was score the dramatic overtime game-winner in Toronto on Saturday – the NESN cameras caught the emotion welling up in the captain as the team celebrated going off the ice – and then Sunday night at the Garden he notched a natural hat trick in 5:50 of the third period to lift the B’s to a come-from-behind 3-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Marchand has surely had better weekends from a personal standpoint, but not many as a hockey player.

“He threw us on his back and said, ‘I’ll take us across the finish line here,’ ” said alternate captain Charlie McAvoy. “He has that capability. He plays with so much passion and energy, playing on a back-to-back and with a little bit of fatigue … I’m so happy for him. He’s Cap. That’s what he does.”

Until Marchand scored in Toronto, he was going through a pretty good drought, having gone five games without a point and eight without a goal. Though what he did to break out of that slump was was highlight reel stuff, coach Jim Montgomery was more impressed with how he helped the team weather the three-game losing streak that is now a distant memory. If anyone was still questioning whether Marchand is captain material, that can be put to rest.

“I think his leadership stood out more while we were going through our adversity and losing and how well he led us in his practice habits and helping the team dig in on the checking part of our game,” said Montgomery, whose team (17-4-3) has now won three straight.

Marchand has been through slumps and enough ups and downs to know that whether the puck is going in or not doesn’t quite matter as much than if you’re doing all the little things right to get chances, so he wasn’t overly stressed about the slump. Still, he’s learned you have to pushing forward to get the results you want.

“I don’t think it matters what you’ve accomplished or what you’ve done in this league, it’s hard every night and that’s just proof that … confidence is a huge factor, too,” said Marchand. “Whether you have it or you don’t can really drastically change the way you play and view the game. It’s just about having a good mindset and sticking with it. There are so many other details in the game that go into scoring.”

Marchand was able to channel his emotions to score his ninth, 10th and 11th goals of the year, all on wrist shots. The equalizer benefited from a deflection, but the next two were pure snipes on the power play.

To start, the game was slow to boil.

After a scoreless first period, it appeared the B’s were ready to take the lead in the second. They got the third PP of the game early in the second but, again, they were kept off the board thanks to Columbus goalie Spencer Martin. Charlie Coyle and Jake DeBrusk played a nice give-and-go, resulting in a golden chance for Coyle, but he couldn’t get his one-time tap over Martin’s left pad.

Then after a long run of continuous play, Martin made two excellent saves in the same sequence, stopping a McAvoy slapper from the high slot and the Matt Poitras shot it back into Martin on the rebound.

But it was Columbus which broke the ice with 35 seconds left in the period on a simple play. Zach Werenski fired a shot into the pile in front of the net. It hit a body in front, and Mathieu Texier made a tight pass across the low slow to Jenner, who had cleverly given McAvoy a little nudge from behind to create space for himself and sweep that puck past Jeremy Swayman (25 saves).

With the way the Jackets were eating pucks – they had 18 blocks in the first two periods – it looked like it was going to be an uphill climb for the B’s in the third period on the second half of the back-to-back.

But Marchand wasted no time in climbing. Kevin Shattenkirk blocked a Zach Werenski shot in the defensive zone and started the rush up to Coyle, who in turn moved it to Danton Heinen. Moving deep on the left wing, Heinen sent it back across to the right wing for Marchand, whose shot ticked off Werenski’s stick past Martin at 1:56 of the third.

The captain then gave the B’s the lead on the power play at 5:36. With Dmitri Voronkov in the box on a questionable offensive zone tripping call, Marchand didn’t need a deflection for his 10th of the year, sniping a a wrist shot from the high slot over Martin’s glove for the 2-1 lead.

When you’re hot, you’re hot and Marchand was feeling quite warm. After he drew another penalty with a smart cut into the middle of the ice, he finished the natural hat trick at 7:46, this time going glove side again from the top of the left circle.

That would be enough for the B’s, who killed off  a late 6-on-4 situation to seal the game.

“He’s a true leader,” said Swayman. “We all knew that from the beginning and for him to take it on his back and just not take no for answer after a back-to-back and three-in-four is what leaders do. He’s going to show up at the right times and he’s been doing that his whole career. It’s a really special night for him and obviously his entire family, so we’re really happy for him.”