Bruins bounce back with 5-2 win over Devils

If the Bruins were looking for a do-over after Thursday’s third-period implosion against the Edmonton Oilers, the exact same situation presented itself Saturday against the New Jersey Devils at the Prudential Center. This time, they did not boot it away.

Heading into the third period with a one-goal lead as they did on Thursday, Patrice Bergeron provided the insurance goal and the rest of the B’s played enough of a simple game to salt it away. Jake DeBrusk finally sealed it with an empty-netter for the 5-2 victory.

The big guys led the way again with Brad Marchand scoring twice (7,8) and Bergeron (6) getting the pad goal, but they did get one player into the scoring column and Jeremy Swayman (27 saves) notched his first road win of the season.

It wasn’t perfect, but there were some good signs.

The B’s took a 1-0 lead late in the first period on the type of goal coach Bruce Cassidy has been looking for and also from a player that desperately needed one.

Karson Kuhlman, in for a banged up Craig Smith, made a nice play in the neutral zone to steal the puck and then, once he gained the zone, fed Anton Blidh, who had just come on the ice and was sailing into the slot. Not wasting any time to dust off the puck, Blidh fired a quick shot that produced a tasty rebound for Erik Haula and the snake-bitten centerman slipped it through goalie Jonathan Bernier’s pads for his first goal as a Bruin at 17:37. That earned Blidh a promotion up to the third line.

At the other end, Swayman was very good in the first, with the only exception being when he played the puck outside the trapezoid to nullify a Bruin power play. He stopped Pavel Zacha on a clean breakaway and then stoned Zacha on a good opportunity from the slot.

The B’s maintained their one-goal lead through the second, but not without exhibiting some of their more troubling tendencies.

Marchand gave the B’s their first two-goal lead of the game on the power play, using a Charlie Coyle screen to beat Bernier with a low, hard wrister from out high in the middle of the ice at 4:10.

But against the Oilers on Thursday, they allowed answering goals within a minute of Bruin goals twice and the B’s did it again Saturday. Just 28 seconds after the Marchand tally, Dawson Mercer got the Devils back to within one. Jake DeBrusk, dropped to the fourth line, had fallen down in the neutral zone while Matt Grzelcyk had also joined the attack. When the Devils captured the puck, they transitioned quickly with numbers. Off a nice Andreas Johnsson pass, Mercer buried his fifth goal of the season from the right wing to make it 2-1.

Marchand regained the B’s two-goal lead at 6:52, crashing into heavy traffic to score on the rebound off a David Pastrnak shot.

The B’s were dominating the shot clock at that point, but the Devils slowly started to play more in the B’s zone. Swayman came up with big stops on Nico Hischier and another on Zacha. But when you play too much in your own zone, bad things happen. And with 36 seconds left in the period, the Devils tied it up off a bad break.

Coyle had gained control of the puck below the goal line on the right side and tried to send it along the boards to a teammate. But it hit off the ref’s skate and bounced out into the slot, where Mercer collected it and made a nice feed to Jesper Bratt for the goal.

And just like that, the B’s found themselves in the exact same spot they were in against the Oilers on Thursday, up 3-2 going into the third period.

This time, the B’s got a goal to extend the lead again, at 10:49. Pastrnak gathered a loose puck in the Boston zone and took it the distance, making a move to the his forehand at the top of the crease. The puck squirted through Bernier and Bergeron was there to tap it in over the goal line.

From there, the B’s for the most part chipped pucks in deep and bled the clock well until DeBrusk scored the empty-netter.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3kxg1gQ