Bruins pull out another come-from-behind win

The Bruins faced a one-goal deficit in the third period to the Philadelphia Flyers on Friday night. And if you’ve followed them at all this year, you’ll know that was mere child’s play.

The B’s scored twice in 27 seconds and then hung on for a 2-1 victory at Wells Fargo Center, extending their points streak to eight games (7-0-1).

James van Riemsdyk snapped a scoreless tie with a power-play goal just 27 seconds into the third period. Van Riemsdyk, who had drawn a retaliatory penalty on Chris Wagner at the end of the second period, parked himself in his usual spot in front of Tuukka Rask and deflected an Erik Gustafsson shot past Rask.

Throughout the third, the B’s leaned hard on the Flyers, spending a lot of time in the Philly zone. But the Flyers, not usually the stoutest defenders, did a commendable job of minimizing the B’s chances.

The B’s, however, kept their work boots on and evened it, then went ahead in a matter of 27 seconds.

The first one came at 12:01, after goalie Brian Elliott gave up a rebound off a David Pastrnak shot. Both Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand crashed the net, with Marchand reaching over Elliott to tuck it home.

On the next shift, Sean Kuraly took a feed from Anders Bjork and beat Elliott with a perfect shot from the left wing off the far post to give the B’s a 2-1 lead.

Craig Smith took a penalty on the backcheck with 3:57 remaining in regulation, but the B’s were able to kill that off and then survived the 6-on-5 for the series sweep.

After they started poorly and ended horribly on Wednesday, the Flyers were bound to come out stronger on Friday and they did. Things were not as easy in the offensive zone for the Bruins, and Philly had some chances early.

Then later in the period, the Flyers had some great chances when the B’s paraded to the penalty box.

It all started when Connor Clifton delivered a good, hard check to Nicolas Aube-Kubel and the two decided to drop the gloves at 13:50. Clifton started off by landing a couple of shots on Aube-Kubel before the Bruin lost his balance and the linesman quickly broke it up.

Shortly after that, the B’s were about to get a power play due to a Travis Konecny interference penalty, but after the whistle, Wagner reacted to a Travis Sanheim hit at the whistle, creating a 4-on-4.

That lasted all of six seconds before Charlie McAvoy was called for high-sticking Joel Farabee, giving the Flyers a lengthy 4-on-3. Then, near the end of McAvoy’s penalty, Brandon Carlo was called for hooking, his second penalty of the period.

But the B’s survived it all, killing off all the indiscretions while getting a couple of key saves from Rask when the Flyers did manage to get the puck through.

The two teams continued to battle to a standstill throughout the tight-checking second period, but both squads would have glittering chances. Thanks to a dominant shift from the Bruins’ top line, Farabee took a tripping penalty on Jakub Zboril, who actually skated backward into Farabee’s legs to get the call at 14:16.

The B’s had two good chances on the PP. First, it looked like Pastrnak was going to break in on Elliott, but he was harassed from behind by Sanheim and lost control of the puck. Then later on the advantage, a McAvoy shot broke through Elliott but it trickled just wide.

The Flyers then had their great chance.

The Philly killers got the puck out to the neutral zone just as Farabee was getting out of the box for a breakaway. Zboril hauled him down from behind and the former Boston University Terrier was granted a penalty shot. Rask, however, made the stop look easy, thwarting Farabee’s five-hole attempt.

But just as the period was winding down, Wagner again took a retaliatory penalty. After a van Riemsdyk check from behind, Wagner threw a punch at the back of his head. He tried to get van Riemsdyk to fight but was unsuccessful and headed to the box.

That gave the Flyers 1:58 of power-play time to start the third period, and then van Riemsdyk made the B’s pay for it.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/39Y1E0x