Bruins lose lead, then game in OT to Flyers, 3-2

The Bruins coughed up a third-period lead, and the Philadelphia Flyers finished them off in overtime, taking a 3-2 win back with them into a Tuesday night rematch in Philly.

Travis Sanheim blocked a Patrice Bergeron shot in the Philly zone and, after Bergeron fell down while backing up on defense, Sanheim moved in all alone and beat Daniel Vladar with a wrister over the goalie’s blocker with 1:52 left in OT.

The Bruins took a 2-1 lead into the third period but could not hold it. The struggling Jeremy Lauzon, back in the lineup after being scratched in the last game, took a defensive zone holding penalty on Michael Raffl. And with the way Lauzon’s luck has been going since returning from a broken hand, the Flyers of course evened it on the power play. Sean Couturier beat Vladar over the glove from the top of the left circle to make it 2-2 at 6:56.

The game had a familiar start.

For the sixth consecutive contest, the Bruins allowed the game’s first goal. Vladar was a little busier than the B’s wanted him to be in the early going and had already made a solid stop on Joel Farabee on a 2-on-1. But the Flyers nicked him for a goal at 10:15. Vladar made a good save on the original deflected shot by Ivan Provorov but he then swept the rebound to his left, where Travis Konecny was able to pop it home.

That got the B’s going. Charlie McAvoy nearly tied the game when he rung the post off a nice fed from Jake DeBrusk, fresh off the Covid list. But they did get the equalizer at 17:33. Coach Bruce Cassidy made a bottom six line alteration, flipping right wing Karson Kuhlman and Zach Senyshyn, dropping Senyshyn to the fourth line (he would sit a good portion of the second period) and bumping up Kuhlman to play with Charlie Coyle and DeBrusk. The new third line pounced on a Flyer miscue to even it up.

Jake Voracek fell down at the left half board and lost the puck to Coyle. Coyle connected with the oncoming Kuhlman on the right wing and Kuhlman smoked a wrist shot over goalie Brian Elliott’s glove for his second goal of the season to make 1-1.

In the final minute of the first, Couturier took an unforced icing penalty and, off the ensuing faceoff in the Philly zone, Shayne Gostisbehere took a tripping penalty on Brad Marchand. With the leftover power play time to start the second, the B’s made them pay.

Matt Grzelcyk did terrific job of walking the blue line and avoiding a Kevin Hayes stick check before dishing to David Pastrnak on the left side. Pastrnak then made an on-the-tape pass to Patrice Bergeron, who redirected it past Elliott from the mid-slot 46 seconds into the period.

The B’s got into some penalty trouble themselves, taking the next two infractions. Spectacular play by Vladar on the first kill helped preserve the lead.

First, he went post-to-post to make a blocker save on Claude Giroux then, seconds later, he robbed Konecny with the glove. That one was close enough to the goal line for the officials to take a second look at it at the next stoppage, but the save was upheld.

He would have to make another terrific save later in the period after an unsuccessful Bruin power play. Justin Braun, who’d just come out of the box, got a step on McAvoy and had a partial breakaway. McAvoy hectored him from behind, but Vladar was forced to make a solid stop on Braun.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3sS2S4c