Faster than you could blurt out, “Fellas, it’s been good to know ya,” the third period saw the main hatchway cave in, leading to another three Kraken goals and pointing the hobbled Bruins back to Boston with a 2-2-1 record in their final long road swing of the season.
What instead could have been a 3–1–1 road trip instead finished as a .500 tour away from the old West End that left them stuck in deep dog paddle in the Eastern Conference.
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David Pastrnak scored two goals against the Kraken on Tuesday night.Lindsey Wasson/Associated Press
If it’s going to take a minimum 95 points to qualify for the playoffs, the Bruins must collect 49 of a possible 78 points the rest of the way. That would be a .628 winning percentage to finish out for a club that has sputtered along with three more losses than wins, 10-11-2 (.478), across the last seven weeks.
The rebuild right now has a Tower-of-Pisa slant to it.
“We actually had good energy, good legs …” mused first-year Bruin bench boss Marco Sturm. “We just totally got away, we made the mistakes and [Seattle] played just nothing really special. But they played the right way and led us to the mistakes and unfortunately it cost us two big points. It was right there for us, but it just got away.”
The messy second period, in which they gave up three goals to the Kraken, proved the Bruins’ undoing. After squaring it, 2-2, on David Pastrnak’s second equalizer of the night, constant back-end errors ultimately handed the Kraken two goals only 96 seconds apart in the final two minutes of the period.
For a club previously 0-15-0 when trailing at the 40:00 mark, the night was over, although the Kraken tallied three times in the third, around goals by Mason Lohrei and Vikitor Arvidsson (power play).
“A wasted opportunity,” said Pastrnak, now with 19 goals for the season. “We were rested, and they came in (after a game the night before in Calgary, you know, that’s one you gotta win and steal those points. A long trip … a tough, tough loss.”
The Bruins, who haven’t played shorthanded more than any team in the league, were short four times — and gave up three power play goals. The seven goals against tied their season-worst mark, the third time they’ve yielded that total. Five different players scored for the Kraken, with rookie Berkly Catton and ex-Ranger Kaapo Kakko each potting a pair.
“Mental mistakes, we put ourselves behind the eight-ball,” said Charlie McAvoy, one of the club’s better performers (including his seven shot attempts). “We absolutely did this to ourselves tonight. We should have been more prepared. We should have had better legs, but mentally we gave them everything they had tonight.”
Ben Meyers broke the 2-2 deadlock with a goal at 18:23 of the second, set up by Tye Kartye plucking the puck away from Lohrei. Jared McCann, left free and clear to pound the puck from high in the right circle, then drove home a sizzling one-timer on a power play with only 0.4 seconds to go before the second intermission.
Charlie McAvoy finished the game with seven shot attempts.Lindsey Wasson/Associated Press
Despite Sturm’s constant urging to cut back on their perpetual march to the penalty box, the Bruins found early trouble in the first period and soon were working with a 1-0 deficit.
Nikita Zadorov, the league leader in PIMs, was whistled off at 8:31 for interference — an unnecessary hit on McCann along the wall. Only nine seconds later, the Kraken moved to a 5-on-3 manpower advantage when Jeremy Swayman, trying to keep his crease area clean, was charged for tripping Jordan Eberle. Yet another unnecessary goal.
“Again, we talk about it every day,” said Strum, reciting each of the calls whistled against his charges, including an offensive zone infraction by Alex Steeves. “I mean, I don’t know … that can’t happen.”
The Kraken, among the league’s lowest scorers, needed all of nine seconds to connect on the two-man advantage. Eberle, poaching along the goal line, some 8-10 feet away from the left post, moved in quickly and potted a loose puck for the 1-0 lead. A sprawling Swayman had an open side of the net for Eberle to make the easy pot.
Eberle’s goal ended a season-high streak in which the Bruins had opened the last four games with the first goal. It also meant the Bruins, for the first time since losing to the Sabres on Dec. 27, were forced to play with a deficit. They never played with the lead.
“We’ve been on the road so long,” said a thoughtful McAvoy, who landed three of his seven shot attempts and also picked up an assist. “But all the more reason to finish on a high note. We talked about it, not to come into this game flat and to try to put our best foot forward. We’ve got a long, long flight home tomorrow, you know, and it would have been a lot more enjoyable if we finished it off with a win.”
Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at kevin.dupont@globe.com.