“That wasn’t the first period that we wanted, knowing the stakes of this game, but I think we started to find it in the second,” Charlie McAvoy said. “Our mindset was we’re just a shot away from this being a very different game. That’s the resilience, I think, that we’ve tried to embody all year.”
Both teams were kept off the scoresheet in the middle frame, but Boston felt its play was building.
“We know when we don’t have a good start, we find a way to come back to games. Today, I think Jeannot and Kasty gave us the little pulse we needed coming into the second period,” Zacha said. “And then kind of sticking with it, second and third period. Finding a way to win.”
The Bruins battled in the third period. McAvoy put the B’s on the board at 6:29. Arvidsson chipped the puck down to Zacha in the corner, who pushed it up to McAvoy at the point, where he wristed it in for the 3-1 scoreline and his 11th goal of the season.
Zacha pulled Boston within one, 3-2, with a power-play goal soon after. It was the same trio who made it happen. This time, Arvidsson whacked the puck up to McAvoy, who unleashed a shot that Zacha tipped in at 8:43. McAvoy’s assist on the play earned the defenseman a new career-high in points with 57 (11 goals, 46 assists).
“We just made enough plays in the third period to get us back into it,” McAvoy said.
It was Zacha, again, who knotted things 3-3 at 19:49 while on the power play. Arvidsson – who picked up his third assist of the night – poked the puck loose in front for Zacha to knock in. It was his 28th goal of the season and fifth in the last three games.
The matchup ultimately went to overtime and the shootout, where the Bruins pulled off a character, come-from-behind win that earned them two more points in the Eastern Conference playoff race.
“I think it will absolutely help us without confidence,” McAvoy said. “For the stakes at the end of the year and moving forward, we have that in our head like, ‘Hey boys, we’ve done it before, we’ve been there before, we’ve done it.’ And we can have that real belief.”