Marco Sturm wanted a “better” game out of Joonas Korpisalo, and the Bruins’ (23-19-2) goaltender answered with 28 saves in a 4-1 win over the Calgary Flames (18-22-4) on Thursday night.
The Bruins also got production up and down the lineup, while limiting Calgary’s power play opportunities.
“As a group, we knew tonight was really important for us,” Sean Kuraly said postgame. “We weren’t happy how it ended. We thought we gave away two points in Seattle, and we wanted to get them back tonight. Credit to us, for the most part, we did. We had a focus to try and stay out of the box tonight, we were better at that. We know the recipe going forward, we just got to stick to it.”
Kuraly alluded to it, but the Bruins’ most noticeable change was the lack of penalties. They took three, but Calgary only had 2:27 of power play time. Two of the penalties resulted in extended stretches of four-on-four.
The Flames generated just two shots on their power play against Joonas Korpisalo, who made 28 saves as the game’s first star. For the Bruins’ goaltender, it was his first start since December 27, and his first win since December 13. He improves his season record to 7-8-0.
“I’ve done this before, so you just go out there and do your best,” Korpisalo said. “Obviously, try and enjoy the game and get some wins.”
The Flames tested Korpisalo, and got a few high-danger chances on him as well. Mikael Backlund was on the opposite end twice and Matt Coronato once for three of Joonas Korpisalo’s most prominent saves of the night. Per NaturalStatTrick, the Flames generated five high-danger shots, and Korpisalo stopped four.
“There’s always moments you need a save, a timely save,” Korpisalo added. “Today, I made a couple of those.”
The Bruins got contributions from all sides of the puck, whether it be Korpisalo in goal or the four different goal scorers. Sean Kuraly notched his first goal since December 11, Elias Lindholm scored his third goal in the last four games, Mason Lohrei netted his fourth of the season, and Casey Mittelstadt crashed the net with his rebound for the last Bruins goal.
“I think everybody in the back, we’re buying the shoot-first mentality,” Mason Lohrei said after the game. “Guys are going to the net. Whether it’s getting a gritty one, or having a guy with the screen and you find the net yourself. We’re all buying into that and seeing that it works.”
“I think it’s one of the biggest cliches in hockey, but the better you defend, the more offense you’re going to get,” Casey Mittelstadt said. “Our team is a product of that. I think when we’ve defended well, we’ve scored a lot of goals and had a lot of chances. That’s step one for us, so if we do that, usually the rest falls into place.”
Marco Sturm mixed up the forward group ahead of Thursday’s game, and it worked out. Three different forward lines factored into the scoresheet. The third line generated eight scoring chances and three high-danger chances, per NaturalStatTrick.
“I think we did the right thing, and we balanced the lines a little bit,” Marco Sturm said after the game. “I really like [Khusnutdinov] with David and [Elias Lindholm] just to give them a little bit more speed. Overall, we’re a little bit deeper. Also, our fourth line definitely played better than the last few games, too. So that helps.”
The Bruins’ win emphasized the corrections the team made after a recent stretch where penalties and mental breakdowns cost them points. They did not reinvent their game; instead, Boston leaned into its structure, played a simple game, and stayed out of the box.
“We look back at a few that we wanted more points,” Kuraly said. “We’ve done a good job of leaving stuff behind us and moving forward. This is just moving too fast right now, the schedule and everything, to be hung up on anything. You got to learn from it really quickly; you got to look at it, and then you got to move on right away. Can’t get hung up on these kinds of things.”
In a stretch that leaves little time to get hung up on mistakes, Thursday’s win shows how quickly the Bruins can respond. They will carry that approach into the remainder of their four-game homestand. The team has improved to 3-1-1 in their last five games, and can now look ahead to the New York Rangers (20-19-6) on Saturday afternoon.