DiPietro Earns First NHL Shutout as Bruins Rout Predators 6-0

Goaltender Michael DiPietro made 28 saves for his first NHL shutout Thursday night, Oct. 22, 2026, as the Boston Bruins beat the Nashville Predators 6-0 at TD Garden. Captain David Pastrnak scored twice and added two assists, Charlie McAvoy had four assists, and Boston improved to 8-2-1 with a seven-game point streak.

Bruins vs. Predators: the scoring

Five different Bruins scored, according to the NHL.com game recap. Casey Mittelstadt opened the scoring at 3:49 of the first period, finishing a cross-ice feed from Pastrnak with a wrist shot from the left circle. Elias Lindholm made it 2-0 on the power play at 16:38, redirecting a McAvoy shot from the blue line.

Pastrnak tipped another McAvoy shot past Nashville goalie Justus Annunen at 9:46 of the second period, and JJ Peterka scored at 17:21 by poking in his own rebound after redirecting a Pastrnak pass off the post. Mark Kastelic’s backhand at 6:50 of the third made it 5-0, and Pastrnak closed the scoring at 15:00 with a wrist shot from the top of the slot. Pavel Zacha added two assists.

Annunen made 25 saves in his first appearance of the season for Nashville, which fell to 3-3-3 and has lost four of its last five games.

A personal night for Michael DiPietro

The shutout came on the Bruins’ Hockey Fights Cancer Night, and DiPietro said it carried extra meaning. “My mom (Becky) passed away when I was 5 from cancer, so it means a lot for me, my family and everyone back home,” he told reporters. “I just want to make them proud, and this is a real special moment.”

DiPietro earned his first NHL win just six days earlier, making 26 saves in a 4-2 victory at Anaheim on Oct. 16. He has played seven NHL games, including five starts, since debuting on Feb. 11, 2019, per NHL.com. Teammates greeted him with an ovation when he entered the locker room after the game.

Pastrnak and McAvoy driving the offense

Pastrnak has 14 points (six goals, eight assists) over his past seven games, and Thursday was the 20th four-point game of his career, making him the eighth player in Bruins history to reach that mark. He was named captain before the season, as we reported in our story on the captaincy. “It’s almost like you’re waiting for who is it going to be tonight?” Pastrnak said of the balanced scoring. “Every line is finding chemistry.”

McAvoy missed the first six games of the season while serving a suspension for slashing Buffalo’s Zach Benson in Game 6 of last spring’s Eastern Conference First Round. In five games since returning, he has six points (one goal, five assists). “We started on time and we just played a really great team game,” McAvoy said.

Nashville coach Andrew Brunette called it “our worst effort of the year — by far.”

How Boston’s October has gone

After a 2-2 start that included home and road losses to Ottawa and Minnesota, the Bruins have gone 6-0-1. Boston swept a 3-0-1 road trip through San Jose, Anaheim, Los Angeles and Dallas, with the only blemish a 3-2 overtime loss in which Mikko Rantanen scored a hat trick for the Stars (our recap of that game). The six-goal performance against Nashville was Boston’s third of the season, following a 6-1 win over Utah on Oct. 8 and a 6-3 win at San Jose on Oct. 13, according to Hockey-Reference.

Next up: Sharks at TD Garden on Saturday

The Bruins host the San Jose Sharks on Saturday, Oct. 24, at 7 p.m. ET on NESN, a rematch of Boston’s 6-3 win in California earlier this month. Boston then starts a two-game road swing at Carolina on Tuesday, Oct. 27 (8 p.m., ESPN) and St. Louis on Thursday, Oct. 29, before hosting Chicago in a 1 p.m. Halloween matinee on Oct. 31, per the team schedule.

Sources

• NHL.com: DiPietro gets first career shutout, Bruins defeat Predators to stay hot
• Hockey-Reference: 2026-27 Boston Bruins results
• Hockey.com: Boston Bruins 2026-27 schedule and results
• CBS Sports: Boston Bruins schedule

Featured image: TD Garden before a game. Photo by AEJ, Wikimedia Commons, public domain.