BOSTON — The Bruins have many different ways to win in this thus-far magical season. On Thursday, they found a way to lose, and in a very un-Bruin-like fashion.
The Bruins spit up a two-goal third period lead, could not capitalize on an overtime power-play and Trevor Moore lifted the Los Angeles Kings to a 3-2 victory in the seventh round of the shootout at TD Garden.
It was the third straight game on Causeway Street that went to a shootout, and the Bruins are 1-2 in them, pushing their home record to 15-0-2.
The Bruins took a 2-0 lead into the third period and appeared to be on their way to yet another Garden victory when the Kings cut their deficit in half with 11:31 left in regulation when Adrian Kempe scored off a rebound of a Kevin Fiala shot.
Bruin pressure forced the Kings to take a couple of penalties, but the Bruins could not capitalize. Goalie Pheonix Copley kept it a one-goal game with a great sliding save on a David Pastrnak one-timer on the second power play.
Then with 3:27 left in regulation, Connor Clifton was whistled for crosschecking. If that wasn’t enough, Brandon Carlo took a tripping penalty off the faceoff, giving the Kings 1:53 of 5-on-3 time. Kempe evened it up on the two-man advantage with 2:10 left and the Kings still had 50 seconds left of power-play time.
The Bruins killed off the rest of that and then got a power play when Drew Doughty crosschecked Brad Marchand with 40 seconds left in regulation, but they could do nothing with it and had to settle for the loser point in the shootout.
The first period was fun but scoreless, as the teams traded some quality chances. The Bruins found themselves in a bit of a pickle when Charlie McAvoy took a high-sticking double minor on Jaret Anderson-Dolan at 10:54. While Linus Ullmark had to make one great stop on Anze Kopitar, the Bruins did a brilliant job of killing off the penalty time until Drew Doughty had to hook Patrice Bergeron from behind on a breakaway. No penalty shot was called, but a two-minute minor was and it wiped out the final 39 seconds of the LA power play.
The Bruins could not connect on the rest of that PP or one later in the period and they headed into the first intermission deadlocked at 0-0 with the Bruins holding a 11-10 shot advantage.
Taylor Hall finally broke the ice at 7:43 of the second period on a delayed penalty call after Hall had absorbed a crosscheck. Charlie Coyle kept the play alive behind the net and used his brute force to come out of the pack with the puck. He eventually worked it out high to Matt Grzelcyk. He handed it to Hall on the left side and, with Trent Frederic providing the screen, his wrist shot beat Copley to the short side for his 12th of the year.
Then at 10:02, Brad Marchand made it 2-0 on a power play, snapping a four-game personal pointless streak. David Pastrnak flew up the right wing to gain the zone and take it deep before dropping it back to Marchand at the right circle. Marchand turned this way and that before simply blistering a wrist shot that beat Copley clean to the shortside. The shot was just under the bar and Pastrnak was behind the net ducking for dear life. It was Marchand’s ninth of the season.
