{"id":403352,"date":"2026-01-12T12:32:27","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T12:32:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/403352\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T12:32:27","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T12:32:27","slug":"breaking-apart-the-bruins-win-against-the-flames","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/403352\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking Apart the Bruins’ Win Against the Flames"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marco Sturm wanted a \u201cbetter\u201d<\/a> game out of Joonas Korpisalo, and the Bruins\u2019 (23-19-2) goaltender answered with 28 saves in a 4-1 win<\/a> over the Calgary Flames (18-22-4) on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

The Bruins also got production up and down the lineup, while limiting Calgary\u2019s power play opportunities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a group, we knew tonight was really important for us,\u201d Sean Kuraly said postgame<\/a>. \u201cWe weren\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kuraly alluded to it, but the Bruins\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

The Flames generated just two shots on their power play against Joonas Korpisalo, who made 28 saves as the game\u2019s first star. For the Bruins\u2019 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve done this before, so you just go out there and do your best,\u201d Korpisalo said<\/a>. \u201cObviously, try and enjoy the game and get some wins.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u2019s most prominent saves<\/a> of the night. Per NaturalStatTrick<\/a>, the Flames generated five high-danger shots, and Korpisalo stopped four.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always moments you need a save, a timely save,\u201d Korpisalo added<\/a>. \u201cToday, I made a couple of those.\u201d<\/p>\n

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<\/a> since December 11, Elias Lindholm scored his third goal<\/a> in the last four games, Mason Lohrei netted his fourth<\/a> of the season, and Casey Mittelstadt crashed the net with his rebound for the last Bruins goal<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think everybody in the back, we\u2019re buying the shoot-first mentality,\u201d Mason Lohrei said after the game<\/a>. \u201cGuys are going to the net. Whether it\u2019s getting a gritty one, or having a guy with the screen and you find the net yourself. We\u2019re all buying into that and seeing that it works.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s one of the biggest cliches in hockey, but the better you defend, the more offense you\u2019re going to get,\u201d Casey Mittelstadt said<\/a>. \u201cOur team is a product of that. I think when we\u2019ve defended well, we\u2019ve scored a lot of goals and had a lot of chances. That\u2019s step one for us, so if we do that, usually the rest falls into place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marco Sturm mixed up the forward group ahead of Thursday\u2019s 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<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we did the right thing, and we balanced the lines a little bit,\u201d Marco Sturm said after the game<\/a>. \u201cI really like [Khusnutdinov] with David and [Elias Lindholm] just to give them a little bit more speed. Overall, we\u2019re a little bit deeper. Also, our fourth line definitely played better than the last few games, too. So that helps.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bruins\u2019 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe look back at a few that we wanted more points,\u201d Kuraly said. \u201cWe\u2019ve 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\u2019t get hung up on these kinds of things.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a stretch that leaves little time to get hung up on mistakes, Thursday\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marco Sturm wanted a \u201cbetter\u201d game out of Joonas Korpisalo, and the Bruins\u2019 (23-19-2) goaltender answered with 28…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403353,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[95,895,26,5294,58,896,5,1619,1714,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-403352","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calgary-flames","8":"tag-boston-bruins","9":"tag-calgary","10":"tag-calgary-flames","11":"tag-calgaryflames","12":"tag-featured","13":"tag-flames","14":"tag-hockey","15":"tag-joonas-korpisalo","16":"tag-mason-lohrei","17":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115882147486215622","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}