By: Jack Studley | Follow me on Twitter/X @jackstudley13
For the second time in just as many weeks, the Boston Bruins and Ottawa Senators squared off. This time, the game was in the comforts of home, with a Thursday night matchup in front of a packed house at the TD Garden. The Bruins entered this game on a four-game win streak and had won their last five games in front of a home crowd. They exited this game on a five-game win streak, having won their last six games in front of their home crowd.
Tonight’s goaltending matchup was a duel of goalies playing their old team, and they were traded for each other. It was the third time for both Joonas Korpisalo and Linus Ullmark against their most recent team, and going into the game, neither goalie had lost to their former club. Korpisalo made 20 saves on 22 shots in the win, continuing to stay unbeaten against his former club. Thursday night was Linus Ullmark’s first loss to the Bruins since March 27, 2021.
First Period
The first period got off to a slow start for the black and gold. Ottawa’s first shot of the game came 5:42 into the period. Jonathan Aspirot committed to going for the puck, and Claude Giroux flipped it to Shane Pinto, creating a two-on-one with Pinto and Michael Amadio. Pinto found Amadio’s stick, and he went high on Korpisalo.
The Bruins generated chances in response to the Amadio goal, but Linus Ullmark was not letting anything by him in the first 20 minutes. He made nine saves in the first period, including one on Morgan Geekie as he was set up close. It took Joonas Korpisalo 18:54 before he registered his first save of the night, coming on Michael Amadio. The Bruins outshot Ottawa 9-2 in the first frame, outhit them 13-9, and won nine of the 16 faceoffs, but the scoreboard read 1-0 Ottawa.
Second Period
The second period got off to a much better start for the Boston Bruins. Andrew Peeke hammered a shot at Linus Ullmark, which squeezed through his equipment and off the post. Morgan Geekie was standing right outside of the crease and buried home his tenth of the season just 81 seconds into the second period.
The game started to get chippy throughout the second period, with sizable hits laid by Nikita Zadorov and the Senators’ Tyler Kleven. Zadorov drove Tim Stutzle into the boards behind Joonas Korpisalo’s net. Kleven shook up Andrew Peeke, delivering a hit into the boards directly in front of the Bruins’ bench; Peeke went down the tunnel, but returned after and laid out for a blocked shot once he came back.
With just under four minutes to go in the second period, the Bruins kept driving the offense towards Linus Ullmark’s net. Tanner Jeannot evaded two Senators to find Sean Kuraly near the dot. He ripped a shot by Ullmark to give the Bruins their first lead of the night and delivered his signature “Kuraleap” to the TD Garden crowd.
Andrew Peeke picked up the secondary assist for his second point of the night. With two assists and a few timely blocked shots, Peeke would go on to be the recipient of the team’s Grinder Award for the night, given by his teammates.
The Bruins picked up nine more shots in the second, and the Senators wildly improved from their two in the first period, putting eight on Korpisalo. Hits in the second favored Boston, 8-7, and the Bruins won half of the 16 faceoffs. Unlike the first, the scoreboard read 2-1 Boston through 40 minutes of play.
Third Period
The Senators started the third period with the first two shots on net, and for the first few minutes of the third period, the game was up and down the ice. Thomas Chabot took a minor penalty at 9:09, but Pavel Zacha took a slashing minor on the man-advantage, cancelling out the Bruins’ power play. Once the four-on-four expired, the Senators were left with 41 seconds on the power play, and Claude Giroux converted shortly after time expired on the man-advantage.
Joonas Korpisalo stood tall in the third period, shutting down nine of ten Ottawa shots that went his way. Even with a push in the last few minutes, neither team could get the go-ahead goal in regulation. Ottawa had ten shots to the Bruins’ three, and each team had an unsuccessful power play opportunity. At the end of the third, the scoreboard read 2-2, meaning we were in for free hockey on Thursday night at the Garden.
Overtime
This one needed more than 60, and five was almost not enough. 4:18 into overtime, the Bruins caught a break. Ridly Greig took a two-minute minor penalty for slashing, sending the Bruins to a four-on-three power play. Off the ensuing faceoff, Morgan Geekie was called for tripping. The man-advantage lasted a whopping 3.1 seconds for the Bruins before going back to three-on-three.
In the waning seconds of overtime, Charlie McAvoy jumped off the boards with Pavel Zacha and David Pastrnak, and McAvoy had an unreal shift. McAvoy tried setting up Zacha with 13 seconds on the clock, Zacha missed the one-timer, and McAvoy grabbed the puck. He circled the zone and put it on Linus Ullmark. Ullmark froze with the puck sitting behind his equipment, and Pavel Zacha buried it, giving the Bruins the 3-2 win and extending their win streak to five.
The Bruins made it five straight wins on Thursday night, picking up a hard-fought 3-2 victory over the team that embarrassed them just last week. The Bruins are at it again on Saturday, up in Toronto, Ontario, for a battle with an Original Six rival. The next two games for the Bruins are against the Maple Leafs, with the second game coming from the TD Garden on Tuesday.
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