Long one of the NHL’s best faceoff men and top defensive forwards, Patrice Bergeron swapped his lunch pail for a goal scorer’s magic wand Saturday night, scoring a career-high four goals and collecting 5 points in the Bruins’ 7-1 shellacking of the Hurricanes at TD Garden.

Bergeron, 32, playing in his 933rd career game, connected twice in the first period when the Bruins pulled out to a 5-1 lead. It was the first time in 24 years that the Bruins pinned a five-spot in the opening 20 minutes and it set the tone for the club’s easiest win of the season.

“I think I was 16 years old,’’ said Bergeron, pondering half a lifetime ago when he last popped four in the net as a kid in Quebec City. “So it’s been a while.’’

The victory, their third straight, improved the Bruins’ recent record to a blistering 17-3-2. Over the course of those 22 games, they have outscored the opposition by whopping 78-40 margin.

Winners of three in a row, the Bruins have scored five goals or more in four of their last five games.

“We know it’s not going to happen every night,’’ said Bergeron. “Sometimes we’re going to have stretches like that and sometimes not . . . That being said, we know how to play the 2-1 games as well. We learned that earlier this year, especially with all the injuries we had — that helped us being strong mentally, and everyone finding a way to chip in.’’

Brad Marchand, Bergeron’s pesky left winger, also collected a career-high four assists. His right winger, David Pastrnak, scored on a laser cross-slot pass from Bergeron, ending the Czech winger’s goal-scoring drought at 10 games. For the night, the line collected an eye-popping line of 5-7—12.

“They were fun to watch when they got puck possession,’’ said coach Bruce Cassidy, his club not nearly as reliant on that No. 1 line of late, the scoring balanced throughout the lineup. “Just amazing to see Bergy get his shot off from there. But if you’re at [practice] enough, you see him working on it. He had four [goals], and he might had six with the quality looks he had.’’

Cassidy said he kidded the trio that they probably had grown tired of “reading about [Sean] Kuraly and [Riley] Nash supplying all the offense and they said the heck with that.’’

Bergeron connected twice more in the second period, the 274th and 275th of his career (and 15th and 16th of the season) to establish his career high four goals and increase his line to 4-1—5 (matching a career high for points).

When his third goal went into the net, dozens of hats cascaded down from the TD Garden stands to add to the celebration of his second career hat trick. He scored his other hatty Jan. 11, 2011 vs. the Senators.

His second, third, and four goals came in succession across the first and second periods, making him the first Bruin to score a natural hat trick since Milan Lucic on Nov. 28, 2010.

The Bruins scored two goals (Bergeron and Riley Nash) in the opening six minutes, on only two shots against veteran tender Cam Ward. Hurricanes coach Bill Peters had seen enough, summoning Scott Darling off the bench, but the Carolina backup couldn’t contend with the fast, efficient Bruins attack.

The win also added to the humongous advantage the Bruins have held in lead time of late. They went out front with Bergeron’s shorthander at 3:14 of the opening period, and held the advantage the rest of the way (56:46). In their last nine games, the Bruins have totaled a whopping 323:18 in lead time, while trailing for exactly 0:00.

When the night began, the Bruins stood fourth in the league in average percentage of lead time: 40.7 percent. The clubs ahead of them: Tampa Bay (43.4), Winnipeg (42.1), and Nashville (41.5).

“Seems lately we are getting a lot of those five- and tonight seven-goal games,’’ said Cassidy. “You know that’s not going to continue forever. But good for them. I don’t think they are cheating, or it’s dumb luck, they are playing the right way. It’s not 7-5, it’s 7-1. It was 5-0 against Ottawa. So they are still taking a lot of pride in keeping the puck out of our net.

The last Bruin to score four goals in a game: Dave Andreychuk, Oct. 28, 1999, vs. Tampa Bay. No Boston player, even from the swashbuckling Big, Bad Bruins era, has scored five goals in a game.

Anton Khudobin rode the easy win to a 9-2-3 record. He will give way to top stopper Tuukka Rask Sunday night when the Bruins take on the Penguins in Pittsburgh.

The Bruins had not scored seven goals in a game this season. They rubbed out the Maple Leafs, 6-3, Oct. 26 in Toronto.

The first period trouncing began at 3:34 when Bergeron scored his first of two, a shorthander that came just under a minute after David Krejci was whistled off for a high stick.

The beatdown was on. Over the next 11 minutes-plus, the Bruins added a goal on average once nearly every three minutes.

Nash popped in his fifth of the year to make it 2-0 at 5:43. Then, less than two minutes after the ’Canes trimmed the lead to 2-1 on a Jordan Staal tip, Pastrnak blistered a one-timer off a feed from Bergeron. Bruins, 3-1, with 9:04 gone.

The end for the ’Canes then came in a span of 4:12 when Jake DeBrusk tipped home a long wrister by Ryan Spooner (10:22), followed by Bergeron’s second, off a feed from Marchand (14:34).

“It’s too early to get too preoccupied with [the standings], said Cassidy, his squad getting ever more embedded in the top of the Eastern Conference. “We just want to keep playing well and win, and keep climbing up — we have done that. That’s our goal. It seems like there are no easy games in this league but lately, we’ve been able to extend some leads.’’

Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at kevin.dupont@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeKPD.