In a week where the Boston Bruins were on a tough west coast road trip, it didn’t go according to planned. The B’s snuck away with only two points in four games, but a bright spot on the trip was Brad Marchand.

Marchand played a major role in the Black and Gold’s lone win on the trip scoring two goals against the Arizona Coyotes to hand them their seventh straight loss at home. The 26 year-old has now taken over sole possession of scoring leader of the team leading the way with eight goals. He has also added eight assists only trailing Dougie Hamilton (17), Carl Soderberg (18), and Patrice Bergeron (19) for the team lead in points.

Related: Bruins get a dose of reality after salvaging road trip

The left-winger had three goals, two assists, nine shots, six hits and a plus-2 rating on the trip. It wasn’t the best road swing for many on the Black and Gold, but Marchand stepped up in a big way despite three losses.

Marchand liked the team effort against the Coyotes knowing they needed to find a way to get two points away from home.

“It was great that the guys took it upon themselves to go out and play the way we had to,” Marchand told the press after his team’s 5-2 victory.

Another player who is turning the corner as of late is Reilly Smith and Marchand gave credit to his linemate after the game. Smith assisted on both of Marchand’s goals.

“On both of my goals, he made them happen,” Marchand said to the Bruins media. “On the second goal, it was the only hole he had and he just made it right through and I was like oh my God. That’s what we need out of him, especially right now and it’s a lot of fun to watching when he’s playing like this.”

Both teams were playing desperate on Saturday night, but Marchand was satisfied that his team fought for the entire game and got the two points his team desperately deserved.

“You could see it in our game, we played a really good game, a full 60 minutes,” Marchand added. “So you’ve got to give the guys credit, they stepped up and answered the bell.”

Before the west coast trip, Marchand was struggling. In his previous six games, he had a grand total of zero goals and one assist with a minus-4 rating.

Marchand is averaging upwards of 16 minutes per contest, but is battling to stay out of the penalty box. Over his last five games, the “little ball of hate” has accumulated 10 penalty minutes. That’s not acceptable for one of your hottest offensive players on a team that is struggling to light the lamp.

With 16 points in 25 games, Marchand is well on his way to another 50 point season. We know there are times when Marchand goes on cold streaks as we saw before this west coast swing. The Black and Gold are hopeful that the fifth year forward can stay hot, because that can only mean good things.