BOSTON — Being the top dog in the National Hockey League comes with its challenges, as the Bruins are learning. It doesn’t matter where an opponent sits in the standings, a date with the league leaders has a way shaking that team out of its doldrums.
Such was the case on Saturday when the Columbus Blue Jackets, last in the Eastern Conference, came to TD Garden. And for a good 50 minutes, the Jackets gave the Bruins all they could handle. Boston’s own miscues didn’t help matters much either.
But the Bruins scored two goals in 19 seconds in the third period to finally pull away and take a 4-2 victory.
The Bruins started off well, got rewarded with an early power play and capitalized. After having his one-timer blocked, David Pastrnak took a feed from Hampus Lindholm (replacing Charlie McAvoy on the top PP unit) and sniped a wrister over goalie Danil Tarasov’s glove shoulder for his 20th of the year at at 7:17.
That didn’t open the floodgates. The Bruins' recent penchant for taking unnecessary penalties cropped up again and drained the game of any flow.
Jeremy Swayman had not seen a shot by the 9:33 mark when Nick Foligno was called for high-sticking. It would be the first of three penalties the Bruins took in the first period. The Blue Jackets didn’t cash in on that power play, but the it started the loss of momentum for the Bruins.
A late period power play for the Bruins had no zip and plenty of unforced errors and, when it was up, the Bruins took their third penalty of the period and Charlie Coyle’s second. It was an extended PP because the Jackets kept the puck for what seemed like an eternity before the Bruins could gain control.
That gave the Jackets a solid 1:43 of PP time to start the second.
The Bruins killed that one off, but the penalties eventually caught up to them in the second. After Brad Marchand and Johnny Gaudreau went off for matching minors, David Krejci was quickly whistled for high-sticking. The Bruins killed off the 4-on-3, but they evened the game on the 5-on-4 when Boone Jenner, from the side of the crease, beat Swayman with a slick backhand roof job at 14:00.
But before the period was out, Krejci atoned. And it came, of course, on the power play. After the first unit went through a comedy of errors and allowed a couple of shorthanded chances, Krejci took a McAvoy pass and hammered a one-timer past Tarasov at 17:50 to push the Bruins back in front by a slim goal going into the third period. It was Krejci’s ninth of the season.
The Bruins continued to walk a tightrope in the third period until they finally dropped the hammer with two goals in 19 seconds. They first one came with 7:19 left in regulation on a delayed penalty when Taylor Hall cleaned up a rebound of a Pastrnak shot, his 13th of the season and 10th point in this last nine games.
Then on the next shift, Tomas Nosek jammed home another loose puck from the top of the crease for his third of the season.
As has been their way lately, the Bruins wouldn’t make it too easy on themselves. Pavel Zacha took a holding the stick penalty and Patrik Laine ripped a short side snipe to make it 4-2 with 5:31 left in the third.
