The Boston Bruins managed to tie their first-round series by winning game 6 on Thursday night. The Bruins were down 3-2 in the series and came out with a fire in their eyes in tonight’s do-or-die matchup.
The Bruins brought the fight to the Carolina Hurricanes early and often. David Pastrnak had 3 hits within an 18-second span in the first period, which set the tone for the B’s and let Carolina know that Boston was not going to lay down.
The first period resembled a boxing match. Each team took turns trading time in the offensive zone but Boston had the upper hand early. Carolina managed to get one more shot on goal than Boston but the Bruins never seemed to feel like they were bothered. They stayed composed and stuck to their game.
Boston opened up the scoring in the second when Brad Marchand fired a shot over Anti Raanta’s glove to put Boston up 1-0 in the first minute. Boston took 4 penalties in the second period but they survived all of the Carolina power-plays. Carolina took a costly penalty and would pay for it with a Charlie Coyle goal at the 18:04 mark to make it 2-0.
If game 6 was a prizefight, the third period was the closing seconds of the final round. There was a lot going on to close out the game.
Carolina got on the board when Andrei Svechnikov netted the Hurricnaes’ first goal of the game at 3:24 in the third period to bring them to within 1. It would not get any closer than that. Erik Haula would send a puck into the back of the net to make it 3-1, followed by Derek Forbort to make it 4-1. Curtis Lazar would fill the empty net to make it 5-1 with just over 4 minutes left in regulation.
A questionable spearing penalty would send Brad Marchand to the box for 4 minutes. Marchand would only sit for a minute and a half when Svechnikov would put in his second tally of the night.
The Bruins will travel to Carolina to play game 7 on Saturday where the winner will move on and the loser will spend their summer recovering on the golf course. If the Bruins can play with the same intensity they showed tonight, they will most likely be the ones left standing after the final horn. Let’s hope they bottle up some of that Garden Ice and bring it with them.