Bruins storm back to beat Devils in shootout, 5-4

The Bruins wiped out a two-goal, third-period deficit to beat the New Jersey Devils in a shootout to capture a blemished but much needed 5-4 victory at the Garden on Tuesday night.

Charlie Coyle and David Pastrnak beat Mackenzie Blackwood in the shootout while Jaroslav Halak stopped Pavel Zacha and Kyle Palmieri for the win.

The B’s entered the third period down 4-2 and Charlie McAvoy got them to within a goal at 10:22. Blackwood left a fat rebound of a Craig Smith shot and McAvoy buried it from low on the left wing.

After an unsuccessful Bruin power play, the B’s tied it up with 4:00 in the third. David Krejci won a draw back to Smith, who in turn fed Matt Grzelcyk. With traffic in front, Grzelcyk beat Blackwood to the far blocker side.

The B’s, who had to kill off a late penalty on Patrice Bergeron, had a couple of great chances to win it in the final minute but could not pull ahead. Krejci lifted a shot in tight over the net and Smith was stopped on a one-timer.

The B’s had their chances in OT, including one on which Jesper Bratt’s stick kept the puck from going into an empty net.

Then, after McAvoy was called for slashing Damon Severson with 2:21 left in OT, the B’s had to hang on to get it to the shootout, which they did, barely.

The first period featured the Bruins’ first 5-on-5 goal against the Devils in the six games they’ve played this year, but it was not exactly a thing of beauty. And the opening period was marred by Bruin turnovers and lost foot races and battles. Even the B’s most reliable player was not immune.

In the second minute of the game, Jeremy Lauzon began the breakout with a pass up to Bergeron in the middle of the Boston zone. Bergeron appeared to want to kick it over to the left wing to Brad Marchand, back after a two-game absence from a false positive COVID test. Instead, it went straight ahead and P.K. Subban got it right before it crossed the blue line and pushed it back to Miles Wood, all alone down low. Wood picked his spot and beat Halak to the glove side.

The B’s did not get a break in their 1-0 loss to the Devils on Sunday, but they could not make that same complaint on Tuesday. They tied it up with their first goal of any kind against the Devils in seven periods when Nick Ritchie pulled up on a rush and simply fired the puck on net. Blackwood looked like he had it all the way, but it simply broke through his glove and dropped in behind him for Ritchie’s 10th goal of the season at 5:55.

They B’s nearly took the lead shortly after that when Bergeron hit the crossbar and they did have some good chances in tight, especially the second line of Ritchie, Krejci and Smith.

But the Devils kept finding soft spots in the B’s team defense to create some excellent chances for themselves, regaining the lead at 9:34. It appeared as though the B’s were going to create a turnover high in the Devils zone but the puck deflected out to Michael McLeod, who was moving with speed up the left wing through the neutral zone. He blew past Grzelcyk, cut in front of the net and beat Halak on the backhander.

Halak had to make some good saves, including one on a Palmieri breakaway, to keep it a one-goal deficit.

He couldn’t do that much longer.

Within the first four minutes of the second period, the B’s, after having two possible goals nullified in the final 70 seconds on Sunday (one was the right call, one was debatable) had another goal disallowed. Ritchie tipped a Grzelcyk shot past Blackwood, but it was immediately waved off. It was ruled Krejci had interfered with Blackwood and, well, there was a case to be made for that.

The Devils then took a two-goal lead at 3:45 when the B’s young fourth line of Trent Frederic, Anton Blidh and Karson Kuhlman were victimized for the second time after being on the ice for the Devils second goal. This time, they got hemmed in their own zone until Travis Zajac deflected home a Bratt shot/pass from the blue line.

The B’s were stuck in the mud. They had difficulty creating much of anything and coach Bruce Cassidy tried flipping the struggling Pastrnak and Smith. Marchand tried stirring things up, taking one roughing penalty, then a second one, this time taking Bratt with him.

On the ensuing 4-on-4, Subban slashed Krejci, giving the B’s a 52-second 4-on-3. They didn’t score on that, but they would when Marchand and Bratt got out of the box. Bergeron fed Marchand coming down the slot and he beat Blackwood with a wrister to the blocker side at 15:48 for a conventional power-play goal.

The momentum would not last two minutes, and it evaporated painfully. Bergeron beat Jack Hughes cleanly on a defensive zone draw, pulling it back to Lauzon. Lauzon tried a quick 10-foot breakout pass to Pastrnak, but Palmieri jumped it right in front of the B’s net and buried a soul-crushing goal at 17:06 to quickly restore the Devils’ two-goal lead going into the third period.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/39q00Uw