Bruins, Jeremy Swayman survive Flyers, 4-2

The youth movement the Bruins have undertaken this year has produced some decidedly mixed results.

But when it comes to hockey’s most important position, the club’s future looks pretty darn bright.

Playing in his first NHL game Tuesday night, Jeremy Swayman made 40 saves, including 23 in a brutal second period, to lift the B’s to a 4-2 victory over the Flyers in Philadelphia.

Patrice Bergeron led the way with a hat trick and Brad Marchand had a four-point night (1-3), including the game-winner.

Marchand gave the Bruins a 3-2 lead with a shorthanded goal at 8:24 of the third period. Jeremy Lauzon, who has struggled mightily since returning from a broken hand, broke the puck out from his own defensive slot and picked up Marchand for a 2-on-1. Lauzon dished to the man with the hands, and Marchand deftly got Carter Hart to open his pads and scored through the gap.

Patrice Bergeron then finished them off with an empty-netter to finish off his hat trick and the Flyers.

With Swayman making his NHL debut, the evening began with some disquieting news that No. 1 defenseman Charlie McAvoy was going to be a scratch because of an upper body injury. That left Kevan Miller, who was in his first game back after missing 20 because of knee problems, bumped up to play on the first pairing with Matt Grzelcyk.

Not ideal.

Whether that had any effect on the rookie goalie’s mindset or not, the University of Maine product was certainly locked in to start the game, turning away all 13 shots he faced in the first and allowing the B’s to take a 2-0 lead into the first intermission on two Patrice Bergeron goals.

The B’s took the lead on Bergeron’s 900th career point at 7:10. Marchand did a nice job of weaving in and out of traffic out near the blue line and fired a shot toward the net. Craig Smith deflected the shot so Hart could not control the rebound, which Bergeron corralled and used a long reach to get it around Hart’s outstretched pad.

Bergeron made it 2-0 at 17:32 on a power play, with an unofficial assist going to Swayman. Matt Grzelcyk fumbled the puck at the Philly blue line, allowing Scott Laughton to take off on a shorthanded breakaway. Swayman, who’d already made a terrific glove save of a deflection earlier in the period, thwarted the Laughton breakaway. Marchand then lifted the stick of the trailing Kevin Hayes and, with the two Flyers caught deep in the B’s zone, went on the quick counterattack.

Marchand fed David Pastrnak on the right wing and Pastrnak relayed it to Bergeron in the unusually uncovered bumper spot. Bergeron beat Hart through the five-hole for his 12th goal of the year.

But disaster struck for the B’s early in the second and the much more determined Flyers evened the game in the first 4:03 of the period.

First, the Murphy’s Law that had been governing some of their young defenders struck Jakub Zboril. The B’s looked like they had an easy breakout when David Krejci gave a short, soft pass to Zboril. It hit the defenseman’s left skate and Zboril went down in a heap. Travis Konecny collected the gift and, from the right wing, fed Jake Voracek for a redirection goal just beyond Swayman’s outstretched pad 1:33 in.

Then Shayne Gostisbehere made it a brand new game at 4:03. The fourth line got caught in their own zone, a situation exacerbated by Trent Frederic breaking his stick. Eventually Gostisbehere got below the helpless Frederic and he beat Swayman over the glove.

The B’s got through the rest of the second period on rubber legs as the Flyers kept throwing haymakers. The Flyers got 25 shots on net in the period to the Bruins’ seven, and that’s not counting the three posts Philly hit behind Swayman.

Yet somehow, the B’s went into the third period tied at 2-2.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3uwVv2q