(Photo Credits: NBC Sports)

By: Liz Rizzo | Follow me on Twitter @pastagrl88

After a slow start tonight at TD Garden, the Bruins quickly regrouped to take an early lead in the first and ended a gritty game with a shootout win over the New York Islanders 4-3. Boston still remains undefeated in regulation on home ice.

GAME NOTES

The Boston Bruins’ Jake DeBrusk opened up the scoreboard during the game’s first power play of the night at 6:48 . DeBrusk doubled the lead a mere 19 seconds later making it 2-0. David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy were assessed with the helper for the first goal while Taylor Hall and Pavel Zacha had the assists for the second goal. The Islanders’ Josh Bailey made it 2-1 at 11:00 with assists from Noah Dobson and Brock Nelson. A quiet period penalty-wise.

SCORE END OF FIRST: BOS-2, NYI-1

SHOTS ON GOAL: BOS-8, NYI-9

A more active second period saw both teams in the penalty box. Boston had a chance to widen their lead however their man advantage was very short-lived leading to a four-on-four play. Unfortunately, the four-on-four action was briefly four-on-three (Bruins to the penalty kill) before reverting back to a five-on-four Islanders powerplay.

The game was tied at two apiece when Noah Dobson scored a one-timer off the post. Josh Baily and Cal Clutterbuck had the assists. A roughing penalty on the Bruins’ AJ Greer gave Boston a 3-2 lead when Derek Frobert scored his first career short-handed goal. The final minute of the second period saw AJ Greer and Matt Martin dropping gloves-both were given fighting penalties.

SCORE END OF SECOND: BOS-3, NYI-2

TOTAL SHOTS ON GOAL: BOS-10, NYI-8

The Islanders tied the game 3-3 in the third period when Casey Cizikas scored at 4:40 when the puck deflected off a Bruins’ skate; Sebastion Aho was given the assist for the goal. Shots were even as both teams made a final push in the last four minutes of the period. Both Linus Ullmark and Semyon Varlamov made timely saves in the net, giving their respective teams a chance to win the game.

Boston furiously threw pucks toward the Islanders’ net to no avail sending the game to overtime. The Isles had a potential one-on-one chance however Ullmark was able to slow the play down during the overtime. Despite some great scoring chances, the game would go into the dreaded (depending on who you ask) shoot-out.

SHOOT-OUT BREAKDOWN:

BOS: Charlie Coyle-no score

NYI: Matthew Barzal- SCORE

BOS: Jake Debrusk- SCORE

NYI: Brock Nelson-no score

BOS: David Pastrnak-SCORE

NYI: Josh Bailey-no score

FINAL SCORE: BOS-4, NYI-3 (S/O)

TOTAL SHOTS ON GOAL: BOS-33, NYI-26.

The Bruins are now 15-0-1 at home with the win tonight. DeBrusk notched three points tonight while Zacha netted two points. New York’s Noah Dobson and Brock Nelson each had two points. Boston is now 23-4-1 with Ullmark making 23 saves on 26 shots.

NEXT GAME: Thursday, December 15th versus the Los Angeles Kings with puck drop at 7:00 PM @ TD Garden