Coming off back-to-back road losses to the Carolina Hurricanes and the St. Louis Blues, the Boston Bruins were looking to get right against a Chicago Blackhawks team that was just 4-9-0 entering the game at the TD Garden. It seemed like the perfect opponent to pick up a get-right victory, right?
Guess again.
Chicago took a lead in the game three times, but the Black and Gold battled back with two goals late in the third period, incuding the game-tying goal from Morgan Geekie with 12 seconds left before Elais Lindholm won the game in overtime, 5-4 to snatch victory from the hands of defeat. Here are three takeaways after the Bruins improved to 10-4-1.
Bruins veterans showed up when needed late in the game
Goalie Michael DiPietro did everything he could to keep his teammates in the game in a game they probably didn't deserve a point in, but he did, and Boston tied the game after Connor Bedard gave the Blackhawks a 4-2 lead. Mason Lohrei cut the deficit to 4-3 before we got a Morgan Geekie strike.
With 12 seconds left, Geekie fired a slap shot home to tie the game 4-4. Lindholm then took a stretch pass off the boards from Charlie McAvoy at the offensive blueline, broke in, and won the game with a nice move. Again, the Bruins had no business picking up two points.
Bruins have mastered the no-shot mentality
Well, if there is one thing that the Bruins have mastered during their recent play, it's taking away a great shot to either make a pass that is not there or take away a great scoring angle for a bad angle. It started against the Hurricanes and continued against the Blues and now the Blackhawks.
In the first period, the Bruins had a 3-on-1, and Casey Mittlesadt decided to drop a pass back to James Hagens, who had the Chicago defender backcheck him before the pass got there. Then the daily forward has the puck in the slot in a good shooting position and, for some reason, they pass to David Pastrnak, who is either not ready and misses the net from a side angle. It is beyond frustrating watching the Bruins, who had just 13 shots through 40 minutes against the Blackhawks, help other teams out by not shooting the puck more.
Bruins can't stay out of the penalty box, which kills momentum
Boston was outshot late in the second period, 12-2, when Mittlestadt tied the game 2-2 with a nicely placed wrist shot by Arvid Soderblom. Before that goal, the Bruins had slowly tipped the ice a little bit, but Fraser Minten picked up a holding penalty right after the Mittlestadt goal to kill the momentum that they had built.
Will Borgen took a delay-of-game penalty when his clearing attempt out of the defensive zone ended up behind the penalty box as a souvenir. As you could imagine, the Blackhawks had yet to score a power play goal on the road and entered the game with the league's worst power play, but scored on it for a 1-0 lead. You can't make it up. The Bruins have harped on staying out of the penalty box and taking penalties at bad times, but they still do it.
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