Tied 3-3 late in the third period against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night at the TD Garden, the Boston Bruins got a power play with a chance to take the lead. It took six seconds for the Black and Gold to strike, but nobody knew the puck went into the net right away, except for one player, Morgan Geekie.
Charlie McAvoy slid a pass cross-ice to Geekie, who ripped a one-timer that deflected off the stick of a Canadiens defenseman, but nobody saw where the puck went. The referees blew the whistle and thought the puck went out of play. However, David Pastrnak and Geekie knew differently. They found the puck wedged in the back of the net, and after a quick review by Toronto, it was confirmed as a goal on the ice.
“No,” said Pastrnak, when asked if he saw Geekie’s winner. “I honestly thought that the goalie had it under his pad. That’s what I thought. When he got up, and he didn’t have it there, then I thought it might have been probably up to the netting or something, but I didn’t see it.”
It's the second-strangest goal scored this month at the TD Garden. Earlier this month, in a 10-2 rout of the New York Rangers. Pavel Zacha had a shot cleared off the goal line, but after the period ended, Toronto confirmed the puck went in and brought the teams back to finish the final 30 seconds of the period.
Bruins need better start against Rangers
Speaking of the Rangers, the Bruins will visit them on Monday night at Madison Square Garden. New York is struggling right now and heading down the road of a retool like the Black and Gold did last year, but Boston will need a better start than they got against Montreal. They trailed 1-0 and had two shots on the net. Just two.
“It was not good,” Sturm said. “It was just a flat. For some reason it was very quiet, no energy, we made some really bad mistakes. Yeah, so it was a good response after that for sure.”
Sturm harps on good starts, and with lineup questions surrounding Nikita Zadorov, it would be in the Bruins' best interest to get off to a good start in New York.