Bruins blow another third period lead in devastating loss to Golden Knights

When the dust settles on the 2024-25 Boston Bruins season, we will look back and point to a number of reasons why they will likely miss the Stanley Cup Playoffs. One big reason will be because of the number of third-period leads they have blown.

Points are at a premium for the Black and Gold right now and on Saturday afternoon, they let another opportunity to pick up at least one slip away from them with another damaging final 20 minutes. Leading 3-2 entering the third period, the Black and Gold allowed two goals to the Vegas Golden Knights, including the game-winner with 1:10 left to suffer what could be considered the final nail in their playoff coffin this season.

Bruins blow second straight third period lead

Three nights earlier at Madison Square Garden in New York, the Bruins led the New York Rangers, 2-1, entering the third period, but two goals from the Blueshirts led to a 3-2 win. Fast forward to Saturday afternoon at the TD Garden, the Bruins led 3-2 entering the third period only to surrender a pair of goals and lose. It's bad enough to lose both games, it's even more painful that they failed to get any points out of either game.

Saturday's loss to Vegas was because of self-inflected mistakes by the Black and Gold. Nursing a 2-0 lead on goals from Brad Marchand and Nikita Zadorov in the first period, a failed clearing attempt by Zadorov on the penalty kill led to a Mark Stone goal. After Morgan Geekie got the two-goal lead in the second, the biggest back-breaking goal happened.

Zach Whitecloud flipped a shot that Jeremy Swayman misplayed when the puck sent off his glove, under his body before going into the net, just past the goal line with 33 seconds left in the period. You need a save there.

A breakdown in coverage on a Golden Knights rush led to a Pavel Dorofeyev goal to tie the game in the third period before Tomas Hertl potted the game-winner on a shot from the slot. That goal game seconds after Vegas had a goal disallowed for goaltender interference.

This loss is damaging in several ways for the Bruins and all but points the front office to a retool over the next couple of weeks leading into the trade deadline. It's not happening this season and the sooner Don Sweeney and Cam Neely figure that out, the quicker it's going to be to move on to next season.