By: Tom Calautti | Follow me on Twitter/X @TCalauttis
The Boston Bruins extended their winning streak to games and their home winning streak to six games as they topped the Vegas Golden Knights 3-2 in a shootout. James Hagens and Morgan Geekie both notched goals, Jeremy Swayman made 21 saves, and David Pastrnak scored the only goal of the shootout to put the Black and Gold over the top.
Boston’s new look third line got the scoring started a little less than halfway into the opening frame. The play began with a slick passing sequence which saw Elias Lindholm feed Nikita Zadorov for what looked like a sure goal. Zadorov hit the post, but the Bruins ratcheted up the pressure to eventually bury the puck.
Zadorov pinched down the boards and smacked a puck below the goal line to a wide open Lindholm. He centered the puck to a rotating Hagens who slipped it past Carter Hart to give Boston a 1-0 lead.
Hagens now has 6-6-12 in 16 games this season and leads all rookies scoring. He found out after the game that his opening tally gave him the edge in the rookie point race and acknowledged how much of a privilege it’s been to be a part of this team.
“Honestly it’s been really fun just being here, being a part of this,” said Hagens following the victory. “That stuff doesn’t matter when we win. You heard the building tonight, it was one of the best feelings in the world.”
The Bruins would double their lead early in the second period after a gruesome scene. Vegas’ Braeden Bowman elbowed Matt Poitras in the face and Boston’s young forward immediately went down clutching his face. When he got to his feet, he immediately headed down the tunnel, leaving a pool of blood behind him.
Poitras attempted to return later in the second sporting a full face shield and some nasal packing material. He didn’t return for the third. After the game Head Coach Marco Sturm didn’t have an update on Poitras and said that the team would know more tomorrow.
After the duct settled, the officials reviewed Bowman’s hit and assessed a five-minute major and a game misconduct. This gave Boston a golden opportunity to extend the lead, and they took advantage early.
Less than a minute into the power play, the Bruins executed a pretty passing play where David Pastrnak received a pass below the goal line and backhanded a puck to Pavel Zacha, who then made a nifty backhand feed to Geekie who one-timed a puck home from just outside the slot.
Geekie has goals in back-to-back games for the first time this season. He talked postgame about capitalizing on his opportunities and the power play starting to find some rhythm.
“It’s obviously nice to see them go in, but I think for me, maybe it’s just a product of being in the right place at the right time,” said Geekie. “We’ve kind of spun it around on the power play last few games. So I think for us to be able to capitalize on that one’s huge, but, you know, it always feels good to see one in the net.”
The Black and Gold failed to extend their lead with the remaing four-plus minutes on Bowman’s major, and slowly but surely Vegas crept back into the game. Charlie McAvoy was penalized on a soft holding call at 14:50 of the second period, and Vegas captain Mark Stone wasted no time cutting the lead to one.
Things went from bad to worse as McAvoy exited the box exactly eight seconds after being whistled for his first penalty of the night (that’s how quicjly Stone scored). Once McAvoy returned to the ice, he was whistled an abuse of officals penalty and sent right back to the sin bin. The Bruins were able to kill off the second of McAvoy’s minors, but the lack of discipline did not go unnoticed by his coach.
“I didn’t ask Charlie yet what happened on the second one but that’s something he needs to control, right,” said Sturm. “So that’s on him then…He’s gotta be better than that for sure.”
The Bruins finished the second protecting a one-goal lead over the Knights, but couldn’t hold on in the third. Less than halfway through the final frame, Noah Hanifin beat his defender around the net and sent a cross-crease feed that rookie Trevor Connelly was able to snap home to knot the game at two.
Both teams failed to score over the final 13:37 of regulation, and four the second straight game the B’s would need extra time. Connelly’s goal, and the circumstances surrounding it, were eerily similar to Mikko Rantanen’s game-tying strike several weeks ago, where Boston led in the third, seemed to have the game under control, but didn’t make enough plays to keep/extend it and were forced to play OT.
The Bruins got the better of the chances in overtime but neither team was able to solve the other’s goaltending, meaning for the first time this season the TD Garden faithful got to a see the dreaded shootout. Connelly, Jack Eichel, and Mitch Marner all failed to score for Vegas, and Casey Mittelstadt and Fraser Minten couldn’t for Boston.
The game fell on David Pastrnak’s stick, and he ended it in emphatic fashion. Pastrnak skated down the left side of the ice and made a silky backhand – forehand move which fooled Hart and led to an easy slam dunk goal.
With the victory, the Boston Bruins are now 7-1 on home and ice and will play ten of their next 12 games at TD Garden. They’ll play again on Thursday when they travel down to Pittsburgh to take on the Penguins.
Game Notes
- With the secondary assist on Geekie’s goal, Pastrnak becomes just the third Czech-born player to notch 300 power play points (Jaromir Jagr and Patrick Elias).
- Lindholm’s assist on Hagens’ goal was his fifth point in as many games (1-4-5).
- The Mittelstadt-Lindholm-Hagens line spent the majority of the night matched up against Vegas’ top line of Ivan Barbashev-Eichel-Stone. In just under 12 minutes of ice time, Boston’s new-look third line won the shot attempt (16-8), scoring chance (6-1), high-danger chance (3-0), and goal differential (1-0) battles.
- You hate to end on a sour note, but Boston’s top six got thoroughly outplayed in this one. With mutliple days off between their next two games this week, I wonder if Sturm decides to do a little more line juggling.
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