The Boston Bruins did everything right early, and then unraveled. 

The Bruins (37-23-7) saw a 2-0 lead vanish as they fell 4-3 in overtime to the New Jersey Devils (34-31-2) on Monday in Newark. David Pastrnak (26) scored twice, and Pavel Zacha (20) netted one of his own. But the Devils capitalized on mistakes and scored three goals in 23 minutes. 

For the third straight road game, the Bruins went to overtime. Paul Cotter ended the extra frame with 6.2 seconds remaining. 

“He gave us everything he had, and not just because he scored two goals,” Marco Sturm said about David Pastrnak. “He was a driver, he was good on the bench, he was always pushing guys.”

“For me, he was by far the best player on the ice today.”

Pastrnak played the most out of any Bruins skater (24:03) on Monday, and he scored on two of his four shots. His first goal opened the scoring, and his second goal, a highlight-reel finish, tied the game and forced overtime.

Pastrnak is on a six-game point streak with four goals and five assists in that span. 

He skated with “the kid line,” as Marco Sturm called it before the game. Pastrnak was joined by 21-year-old Fraser Minten and 22-year-old Marat Khusnutdinov. 

“It’s fun,” Pastrnak said about playing alongside his linemates. “They are super mature for their age, and we obviously played a little bit together and had some success. So yeah, it was the first game, I believe, in a while for us together, and hopefully we get better and better.”

Pavel Zacha added the Bruins’ second goal, doing so in the place he played from 2016-22.

After Zacha’s goal, the Bruins had a 2-0 lead and carried that into the first intermission. 

The Devils exploded for three straight goals, with the first coming 32 seconds into the second period. They scored again seven minutes later, and added a third at the 2:50 mark of the third period. 

“It’s frustrating because we played such a good first period,” Marco Sturm said after the game. “The way we came out in the second, and the way we played in the second, I don’t know. That’s for me, night and day. And if you play like that, that’s what you get, right? All of a sudden, you get in trouble.”

“That second period really bothered me.” 

Sturm warned the team ahead of the second period, but the mistakes happened regardless. 

“Yeah, but where is the rush coming from, right? It’s from turnovers,” Sturm added. “That’s exactly what we talked about between periods, and we [did] it right away. Right away. And all of a sudden, they scored twice.”

Viktor Arvidsson had the puck stripped from his stick, leading to the first Devils’ goal. Charlie McAvoy and Jonathan Aspirot, the Bruins’ top defensive pairing, chased Connor Brown into the defensive zone on the goal. McAvoy then turned the puck over to Jack Hughes to set up the second goal.

McAvoy was on the ice for all four Devils’ goals, while Aspirot was on for three.

Maxim Tsyplakov sped past Aspirot en route to the Devils’ third goal. 

Despite the defensive struggle on Monday, McAvoy continued to produce on offense. He recorded an assist and now has a seven-game point streak (4-5–9). 

The Bruins’ power play also came up empty again, going 0-for-3 on Monday and falling to 4-for-35 (11.4%) since the Olympic break. They had two shots and two high-danger chances on the man-advantage. 

With the loss, the Bruins pick up a point and move to 81 on the season. They are 1-0-1 on their three-game road trip and will close it out Tuesday night. 

“I always try to look positive,” David Pastrnak said after the game. “I am a positive guy, overall. That’s the way I am, [as a] human being. We got three out of four (points) so far on the trip, and we [are] going to Montreal. Fatigue should not be a question; that’s enough motivation to get going for tomorrow’s game.”

Pastrnak mentioned fatigue will not be an issue, even with their next opponent resting at home waiting. Pavel Zacha agreed. 

“I think we have time to get ready,” Pavel Zacha said after the game. “We have a good sleep, some video tomorrow. And we have a lot of back-to-backs in this league, so we have to learn how to win those games, and we know how important it is for us, too, so everyone’s going to be ready.”

The Bruins will fly to Montreal to face the Canadiens (36-20-10) at the Bell Centre on Tuesday night. The Canadiens are one point up on the Bruins with a game in hand.

The Bruins currently sit in the second wild card.

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