The Bruins simply cannot lose these days.
Facing the second-best team in the league without Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and Hampus Lindholm, the B’s built a 3-1 lead through the first 40 minutes but gave up two goals in the first 3:44 of the third period to the Carolina Hurricanes.
But the B’s absorbed that sucker punch and beat the Canes 4-3 in a shootout after both Charlie Coyle and Jake DeBrusk beating Freddie Andersen in the skills competition. Jeremy Swayman was terrific, turning away 34 shots and both Cane attempts in the shootout.
It was momentous win in many ways. It was the B’s 57th win, tyingthe 1970-71 B’s for the club record while David Pastrnak scored two goals, including his 50th. It was also the B’s first win at PNC Arena since winning the Eastern Conference Finals there in 2019.
The Bruins took a 3-1 lead into the third period, but the Hurricanes clawed to within a goal just 97 seconds into the third period. A rebound off the end boards bounced out to Brady Skjei, who buried a slapper over Jeremy Swayman’s glove shoulder.
And at 3:44, Carolina tied it up when Sebastian Aho knocked home a Jordan Martinook pass and it was brand new game.
Coach Jim Montgomery called his timeout to settle things down at that point. That did the trick to get the game to overtime and finally to the shootout.
Montgomery announced before the game that Bergeron, Marchand and Lindholm would be sitting out with nagging injuries (Bergeron was also ill) and Oskar Steen, up on an emergency call-up, was inserted into the lineup.
Montgomery hinted that the injured players will be back in the lineup on Tuesday when he B’s return home to play Nashville.
“We don’t want to get to the point where they couldn’t play and it’s getting close to that point. So we have an opportunity to rest guys for two days because of those nagging injuries. They’re playing through some pain right now. We don’t want them to progressively get worse,” Montgomery told reporters in Raleigh before the game.
But if the Hurricanes thought they would have an easy time of it, they were quickly proven wrong. The B’s stormed out of the gate and could have scored at least five times, but they had to settle for a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes.
It was a momentous goal, however, coming at 4:43. Charlie McAvoy sent David Pastrnak off on a partial breakaway and, whether he flubbed his move or not, the puck slid between goalie Freddie Andersen’s pads for Pastrnak’s 50th goal of the season. He became the sixth Bruin to reach that plateau in a season, following Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge, Johnny Bucyk, Rick Middleton and Cam Neely. Neely had been the last Bruin to do it when he scored 50 in 44 games in 1993-94.
It was also Pastrnak’s 600th career point, making him the third fastest Bruin to that mark (583 games) behind only Bobby Orr (461) and Ray Bourque (569).
“It’s nice obviously, a big milestone to get,” Pastrnak told NESN after the first period.
But the B’s could have had so much more. Both Pastrnak and Jake DeBrusk were stopped on breakaways and Andersen robbed DeBrusk with a glove save on another high grade chance.
It appeared the B’s had scored a pretty tic-tac-toe goal that was finished off by Tyler Bertuzzi, but it was wiped out by a McAvoy penalty behind the play when he grabbed Jordan Martinook after the Cane had gotten in a tiff with Jeremy Swayman.
The B’s could have used a little breathing room. The Canes tied it at 7:44 of the second period after Tomas Nosek broke his stick and the B’s got running around their own zone before Jack Drury redirected Jalen Chatfield’s pass past Swayman.
But the B’s didn’t wait long to answer. With Teuvo Teravainen in the box for slashing McAvoy, Pastrnak buried No. 51 off a Pavel Zacha feed, beating Andersen to the shortside on his patented one-timer at 9:12.
Then the B’s did get that insurance goal 2:34 later as the fourth line made up for the goal against. Jakob Lauko took a feed from Nosek at the blue line, curled up high in the right circle and simply beat Andersen with a stinging wrist shot for his fourth and a 3-1 lead. Lauko would later leave the game in the third period with what appeared to be a right knee injury.
