Boston Bruins: Boston Survives Late Surge in Carolina

The Boston Bruins went into Sunday’s game coming off a win against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday afternoon. Both teams are playing the second leg of a back-to-back and coming off a win. Boston is looking to win their 7th straight game and pull even further ahead in the standings.

Boston was without some key players on Sunday as they are using their depth to help keep their players fresh for the playoffs. Brad Marchand and Hampus Lindholm were injured and Patrice Bergeron was held out for some much-needed rest. Oskar Steen, Jakub Zboril, and Jakub Lauko slot in for the holdouts and AJ Greer returned from his 1-game suspension for his high-stick against the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.

Boston came out strong in the first going up 1-0 with David Pastrnak’s 50th goal of the season. This is the first time in Pastrnak’s career he has eclipsed the 50-goal mark. A few minutes later Tyler Bertuzzi had a goal called back because Jordan Martinook stirred the pot and baited Charlie McAvoy into taking a roughing penalty. Boston would end the period 1-0.

In the second, Carolina was able to take advantage of Tomas Nosek losing his stick and Jack Drury was able to pot his second goal of the season. The tie didn’t last long because a minute later David Pastrnak scored on the power play to take the lead again. Jakub Lauko scored his 4th of the season to put the Bruins up 3-1 which is where the score sat at the end of the period.

Carolina put the Bruins on their heels in the third scoring 2 quick ones to tie the game up forcing Bruins’ coach Jim Montgomery to take a timeout and talk things over with the guys. Shortly after Jakub Lauko took a nasty spill into the boards but was able to get up and skate to the locker room with some help. The period came to an end with no winner so we went to overtime.

Overtime was a lot of back and forth between Boston and Carolina trading zone entries and scoring chances. Jeremy Swayman kept the game tied with 0.01 seconds left in overtime with 2 quick saves to make sure the Bruins could have a chance to win this game in a shootout.

SHootout started well for the Bruins with a save on Brent Burns. Charlie Coyle Scores on the Bruins’ first attempt. Swayman got another save on Teuvo Teravainen to set up Jake Debrusk for the winner which he rocketed past Hurricanes goalie Frederik Anderson to give the Bruins the extra points in the standings and keep the winning streak alive at 7.

Boston hasn’t exactly felt comfortable in Carolina. Going into the game the Bruins were outscored 26-7 in Carolina. Pair that with a back-to-back and Boston’s missing players, and it would be a safe assumption that this could have been penciled in as a loss, but contending teams find ways to win games they shouldn’t. This is exactly what happened. Boston probably shouldn’t have won this game and even though the shootout is the cheapest way to win, a win is a win.

Boston moves to 57-11-5 on the year, tying the franchise record for most wins in a season. Boston’s 27 road wins are the most in a season by a Bruins team in franchise history. I think it is safe to say the Bruins are having a pretty good season.

David Pastrnak reaching the 50-goal threshold on the season should be the top story from this game. He is the first Bruin to reach that mark since current Boston President Cam Neely did it all the way back in 1994. Pasta would probably have had another if the league didn’t shut down in 2020 due to the pandemic. Nonetheless, here’s to more 50-goal season in black and gold.

Boston looks to set the new wins record and continue their winning streak in Boston on Tuesday when they host the Nashville Predators.