Where this Bruins’ season takes us is still anyone’s guess. But right now? They’ve got a little something going on.
The B’s extended their winning streak to five games after Pavel Zacha’s goal beat the clock with 5.5 seconds left in overtime, lifting Boston to a 3-2 win over the Ottawa Senators at the Garden on Thursday.
Charlie McAvoy carried the puck in deep and got the puck on goalie Linus Ullmark and it trickled through him. Zacha stuck with it and tapped home the GWG, giving the B’s their fourth win in as many tries in extra time this season. The victory also took away the bad taste left in their mouths from a 7-2 drubbing in Ottawa last week, their worst loss of the season.
“I think we’ve been building on our game and we’ve been playing better, even from the last game,” said Zacha, who scored his fourth of the season. “It’s a big team win and I think ’til the end all the lines were going. Even through injury (they lost John Beecher to an upper body injury for the game and both Casey Mittelstadt and Andrew Peeke briefly), we stuck together and won the game.”
With the exception of that lopsided loss to the Sens, the B’s have been a highly competitive, resilient team all season. It’s just that, as they learned coach Marco Sturm’s hybrid zone/man system, they were a structural mess for a while. Now, they’ve kept their intensity while playing with a much better grasp on where they should be all over the ice.
“In Ottawa, it was the only game (that was a poor effort),” said Sturm. “These guys, they give me everything they have. They really do. Did we play the way we wanted early on? Probably not. But I think everyone gets it now. Everyone knows me now and knows what I want out of them .Everyone is accepting their role and everyone does their job. I could go on and on. Again, that’s the way we have to play. I’m very happy structure-wise how we approach every game now.”
The Bruins took a 2-1 lead into the third period and withstood the first real Ottawa push of the game until they got a power play when Thomas Chabot was called for a pick on Morgan Geekie.
But the B’s quickly gave it right back when Shane Pinto outworked three Bruins — a rarity on this streak — on the penalty kill in front of the Boston net and drew a slashing penalty from Zacha.
The Sens went back on the attack on the 4-on-4 and then evened the game on the power play when through a screen, Claude Giroux’s shot from the left wing broke through Joonas Korpisalo and leaked over the goal line with 8:08 left in regulation.
That’s the way it stayed until extra time.
With 42 seconds left in OT, the B’s got a power play, but gave it right back on the ensuing faceoff when Geekie was called for tripping. But with the sides back to 3-on-3, the B’s prevailed in the end. The very end.
It was a solid opening 40 minutes for the B’s.
The good news for the Bruins was that they held a commanding 9-2 advantage in shots on goal over the Senators in the first period. The bad news? The first shot the B’s allowed was of the high danger variety and it wound up in the back of the net.
Boston Bruins center Pavel Zacha (18) celebrates his OT game-winning goal with right wing David Pastrnak in a 3-2 victory over the Senators. (Staff Photo By Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald)
Jonathan Aspirot tried to step up on Giroux at the Boston blue line and was too late to deny the slick veteran’s that started a 2-on-1 for Pinto and Michael Amadio. The Sens executed it to perfection and Amadio beat Korpisalo for the 1–0 lead at 5:42.
Ottawa didn’t have another shot on net until there was 1:06 left in the period.
But while the B’s had decent offensive zone time, most of their shots on old Ullmark were from the perimeter and Ullmark wasn’t giving up any dangerous rebounds.
The B’s were down a forward when the second period started as Beecher suffered an upper body injury in the first and did not return.
The zone time would pay off early in the second period. After some decent pressure, a loose puck slow slid out to the top of the right circle. Peeke, a warhorse all night, stepped into it and blasted a slapper that broke through Ullmark and hit the post. With the puck sitting in the crease, Geekie swooped in for the tap-on at 1:22, his 10th of the season.
Thw B’s dominated for much of the second and, after they couldn’t capitalize off their first power play of the game, they finally did pull ahead.
Peeke had left the game for a time in the second when Tyler Kleven caught him in a vulnerable position and rammed him back-first into the boards. But the defenseman returned in time to record a two-point night.
Peeke fed the puck up to Tanner Jeannot and Jeannot carried the puck along the right wall, drawing two Senators to him. That left Sean Kuraly wide open and Jeannot found him. With plenty of time and space, Kuraly buried his second of the year over Ullmark’s shoulder at 16:03. His previous goal was an excuse-me empty-netter but, with this one, he gave the patented Kuraly Leap into the glass.
“I figured after that went in, it was overdue,” said Kuraly with a grin. “It wasn’t rehearsed but the second it went in, I knew what I had to do.”
The B’s had to kill off a Mark Kastelic interference penalty shortly after that, but the did so successfully and took the 2-1 lead into the third.
They could not hold it, getting outshot 10-3 in the third and giving up the equalizer. But they held it together long enough to get it to overtime. And this year, the B’s have been money in extra time.
Boston Bruins defenseman Nikita Zadorov (91) checks Ottawa Senators center Tim Stützle during Thursday’s game. (Staff Photo By Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald)