As they trailed the New York Rangers 4-1 through two periods of an exhibition game at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night, the Boston Bruins showed that, even with a new coach and an overhauled roster, they are still very much the same team they were last year.

The one that gives up leads in short order, commits inexcusable errors, and ultimately beats itself by barely putting up a fight.

But while the opening 40 minutes followed an all too familiar and disheartening script, the final 23:37 may just in fact be a sign that this is a different Bruins team, as Nikita Zadorov scored in overtime to complete Boston’s four-goal comeback win in its second game of the preseason.

“We didn’t give up,” Zadorov told reporters in Manhattan. “We had a clear message after the second period that wasn’t good enough for our standards, for the Bruins’ standards. We had to show up in the third and show it.”

Zadorov with a literal walk-off OT winner
pic.twitter.com/xcOi2hxKF9

— Andrew Fantucchio (@A_Fantucchio) September 24, 2025

A cross-checking penalty by Zadorov early in the third made it seem almost certain that the Bruins were down for the count. Instead, it’s what helped them begin to get off the mat, with a shorthanded goal from Mikey Eyssimont that cut the deficit in half.

Three minutes later, Eyssimont struck again, finding an open space just outside the blue paint where he collected a pass from Jordan Harris and lifted shot underneath the crossbar for his second goal of the night.

Still down by one late in regulation, Boston pulled its goalie, leading to Marat Khusnutdinov tying the score at 4-4 with just over a minute left to play.

“It just shows that we fight till the end and see games all the way through,” said Eyssimont. “We have to learn from our losses, and hopefully we can learn from periods even that we don’t play too well in. That’s what we did. We fixed a lot of things, and that’s the sign of a mature team.”

The Bruins looked like anything but prior to the second intermission. New York had its way with them in the middle frame, with Gabe Perrault, Sam Carrick, and Vladislav Gavrikov all finding the back of the net.

But even while under constant duress, Joonas Korpisalo’s effort between the posts was the driving force behind the Bruins’ eventual comeback.

“The game could have gone in the garbage real quick if he didn’t make those big saves,” Zadorov said. “We gave up way too many grade-A chances from the slot today. I thought they were really hungry on the punk and had a shot-first mentality. They were crossing our net, and Korpi stayed big for us. He gave us a chance to get back in the game.”

Korpisalo played the entire game, surrendering four goals on 37 shots against. The first of which came off the stick of Trey Fix-Wolansky at 9:14 of the first period, just 44 seconds after Matej Blumel opened the scoring for Boston off an assist from Casey Mittelstadt.

This is pretty much a textbook example of what the Bruins hope both Mittelstadt and Blumel can be for the them this season. https://t.co/185Y3xQHMU

— Andrew Fantucchio (@A_Fantucchio) September 23, 2025

Blumel was one of a handful of players in the Bruins’ lineup who are hopeful to make the roster out of training camp, as were Matthew Poitras, Fraser Minten, Fabian Lysell, and Dans Locmelis.

Last season, that group was shown the worst example of Bruins hockey. Tonight, they saw just how good it can be.

“That’s that’s not us. That’s not the Boston Bruins. That’s not how we want to play. That’s not how we want to represent our logo and that jersey,” said head coach Marco Sturm. “Good for them by responding and winning the game.”

The Bruins have the day off on Wednesday and will return to practice on Thursday at Warrior Ice Arena. Their next preseason game comes Saturday night when they visit the Philadelphia Flyers.

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