{"id":497845,"date":"2026-03-11T08:11:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T08:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/497845\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T08:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T08:11:09","slug":"charlie-mcavoy-wins-it-breaking-apart-bruins-ot-win-over-kings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/497845\/","title":{"rendered":"Charlie McAvoy Wins It: Breaking Apart Bruins\u2019 OT Win Over Kings"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOSTON \u2013 Ahead of the game, Bruins\u2019 head coach Marco Sturm said<\/a> \u201cI\u2019m not worried about the offense. I think the defensive part is always for me first, and that\u2019s where some other lines need to get better.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Well, the Bruins allowed 15 shots on goal, the lowest total they have allowed all season. And their two goals were scored by defensemen.<\/p>\n

The Boston Bruins (36-22-6) made it 13-straight at home with a 2-1 overtime win<\/a> against the Los Angeles Kings (26-23-15) on Tuesday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They have not lost at home since December 23, 2025. Road games have been a different story recently, and overtime did not go their way on Sunday night in Pittsburgh<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s huge,\u201d Mason Lohrei said<\/a> of the team\u2019s ability to bounce back. \u201cEvery day we show up to work, and we\u2019re ready to go. We\u2019re a confident group, for sure. Even since the beginning, you know, a lot of people were doubting us. We show up, and we go to work, and let the results speak for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Lohrei<\/a> broke the ice, scoring the game\u2019s first goal<\/a> at the 8:22 mark of the third period.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, the story from Tuesday night was Bruins alternate captain Charlie McAvoy<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

McAvoy left the game in the second period. He returned for the third period, skating in 10 shifts before taking one more in overtime. Overall, he played for 22:26, the second-most out of any Bruins player on Tuesday \u2013 despite missing time late in the second period.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His overtime shift made the difference. In stride, David Pastrnak<\/a> played the puck to McAvoy, who used his backhand to beat Darcy Kuemper<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When the game-winning goal scorer entered the locker room to meet with the media, he requested only two questions<\/a>. He said he needed to go get more dental work done.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, I wish the hits would stop coming, honestly,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s tiring. My mouth, honestly, can\u2019t feel worse. But I\u2019ll get some work. We got a really good dentist here who\u2019s great.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just really happy we got two points tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was not the only one surprised. Marco Sturm did not think<\/a> he was coming back, but he knows the impact that it has on the players in the room.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe guy next to him, he\u2019s going to look over, \u2018Okay, is he going to battle through it or not?\u2019 If you sit across from him, and you\u2019re a young guy, to see that, you know,\u201d Sturm said<\/a>. \u201cI don\u2019t want to be the guy who is going to quit. Those are the guys you need in a locker room.\u201d<\/p>\n

His teammates know the impact as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, yeah,\u201d Lohrei said when asked if McAvoy\u2019s return helped lift the team. \u201cYou never want to see him go down. He\u2019s had some tough bounces in the past little bit here, so obviously huge when we saw him come out and get back with us. And then, that\u2019s the kind of player he is, you know, game-winning play.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s tough as nails, man,\u201d Jeremy Swayman said about McAvoy. \u201cYou always know he\u2019s going to respond to whatever comes his way. That\u2019s a special individual on our team, and I\u2019m so happy that he\u2019s getting the success he deserves right now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Swayman made 14 saves on Tuesday. He also hit win No. 25 of the 2025-26 season, which ties a career-high set in 2023-24.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an honor, it\u2019s hard to win in this league,\u201d he said<\/a>. \u201cIt takes a team, so a lot of credit goes to the boys in front of me. I love this thing, so let\u2019s keep it rolling.\u201d<\/p>\n

He finished with 1.35 goals saved above expected.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Bruins have now won 13 straight on home ice. They will look to add to that streak when Macklin Celebrini<\/a>, Lexington-native Will Smith<\/a>, and the San Jose Sharks<\/a> (30-26-6) come to town.\u00a0<\/p>\n

FOLLOW @JACKSTUDLEY13 ON \ud835\udd4f<\/a> | FOLLOW @BOSHockeyNow ON \ud835\udd4f<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOSTON \u2013 Ahead of the game, Bruins\u2019 head coach Marco Sturm said \u201cI\u2019m not worried about the offense.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5099],"tags":[154,95,5132,530,2154,5,156,145,1714,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-497845","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-bruins","8":"tag-boston","9":"tag-boston-bruins","10":"tag-bostonbruins","11":"tag-bruins","12":"tag-charlie-mcavoy","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-jeremy-swayman","15":"tag-los-angeles-kings","16":"tag-mason-lohrei","17":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116209535213387368","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497845","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=497845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}