Bruins start new year with another overtime loss to Blue Jackets

The decade changed, the trend stayed the same.

In their first game of the second half of the season — and first of the new year — the Bruins surrendered another third-period lead, extended their point streak to nine games — and lost again after regulation, suffering an overtime loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets, 2-1 on Thursday night.

Just 52 seconds into the extra frame, Pierre-Luc Dubois took a pass from Seth Jones and fired it past Tuukka Rask to give the Jackets their second straight win, while the Bruins have dropped two in a row in extra hockey.

Thursday was the first time the Bruins and Blue Jackets have met since last season’s second round playoff series that the Bruins took in six games to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals. Columbus looks much different, but still battled and in trademark Blue Jackets fashion and challenged the Bruins along the boards and blocking shots all night.

The Blue Jackets found the back of the net 17 seconds in, but the celebration was short-lived. Sean Kuraly turned the puck over behind the net to Gustav Nyquist, and he put it past Rask for what would have been a 1-0 Columbus lead.

The Bruins challenged for goalie interference, and the verdict was Boone Jenner got his stick in Rask’s skates. The call was reversed and the game remained scoreless.

David Pastrnak, naturally, blasted in the Bruins first goal of the decade. Four seconds into their second power play of the game, and with 11:07 gone in the second period, the B’s winger fired a cannon of his own in from the point to put the Bruins ahead 1-0 and nab his 30th goal of the season.

Sonny Milano, in his first game back for the Blue Jackets in nearly a month, found a lucky bounce just 2:06 into the third to tie it. He flipped the puck towards the crease and it bounced off Matt Grzelcyk in front of Rask and in to make it a 1-1 game.

It was a game shrouded in close goals that never were; first it was Nyquist’s overturned goal. Then, a puck got through Rask and sat in the crease for a few moments before Charlie McAvoy and Par Lindholm got it out of harm’s way. In the third, Pastrnak clanged a shot off the near post on what would have been his second tally of the game.

The speed picked up in the third period with both squads trading chances like that for the duration, but the first game of the new year was destined to go to overtime for a Bruins team that can’t seem to avoid it.

Dubois blasted a shot past Rask with 4:08 left in the overtime period, sending the Bruins home with their first defeat in their first contest of 2020.

The Bruins continue their brief two-game home stand on Saturday afternoon when they host the Oilers.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2tqFctM