Not every Bruins game is destined to have a happy ending, apparently. But it took the B’s some convincing of that Wednesday at the Garden in their 3-2 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes.
The B’s fought back to erase a two-goal third deficit to tie the game, but Jordan Martinook slipped behind the surging Bruins for a clean breakaway in crunch time. He snapped a shot that Linus Ullmark got a piece of, but it broke though the goalie and dribbled into the net with 2:27 left in regulation. It held up as the winner.
Prior to the winner, the B’s had been pressing for the go-ahead goal but Hampus Lindholm made an ill-advised pinch on the left side and Brandon Carlo could not shut down the play in the neutral zone, leading to the breakaway. On another night, the comeback might have provided a silver lining, but coach Jim Montgomery was seeing red over the game management on the gut-punch goal.
“The game management bothers me at the end,” said Montgomery. “You’ve got to know that we’ve done a great job to tie it up 2-2. We don’t need to force anything. Points are valuable. And it’s a good lesson for us moving into the playoffs. Yeah, the momentum’s on our side. It’s 2-2, the crowd’s into it, the Garden’s buzzing. But we can’t lose our positioning and give up a breakaway.”
Carolina also won the special teams game, going to 2-for-3 on the power play and killing all four of their own penalties.
“The PK’s got to be better. We’ve got to do a better job there to give us a chance,” said Charlie Coyle, who was on the ice for one of the PP goals. “But I think our all-around game wasn’t up to par at the start. We were late on the puck. We need to be more on our toes and we weren’t. But backs against the wall, we come out and it’s a different game we play. We need that focus right from the start.”
The loss snapped the B’s five-game win streak. It was also their first regulation loss since Jan. 4.
With the B’s trailing 2-0 and struggling to generate any offense, Montgomery mixed his lines, with Trent Frederic taking David Pastrnak’s spot on the Brad Marchand-Coyle line. The change worked as hoped, and the B’s finally got on board 1:30 into the third. The line put on a heavy forecheck until a loose puck squirted out to Frederic at the left side of the net. Frederic poked it over to Marchand, who roofed it over goalie Spencer Martin to pull the B’s within striking distance.
The same line tied it at 7:20 off a pretty rush. Coyle and Frederic played give-and-go entering the zone. From the left wing, Frederic sent a return pass to Coyle for a tip attempt on which Martin made a terrific stop, but Marchand (No. 23) swooped in to slip the rebound between Martin’s pads.
“Trent Frederic’s a real confident player. He’s playing real good hockey for us and it’s been a long time. He’s earned and deserves the ice time he’s getting,” said Montgomery.
Old friend Dmitry Orlov gave the B’s a great chance to take the lead when he hauled down Oskar Steen on a rush to the net with 6:31 left in regulation. But despite good zone time on the PP, the B’s could not get the go-ahead tally.
The Canes did, however, and they made it stand up for the win.
After Monday’s slog against the Winnipeg Jets, the first period had a good pace to it with both teams having a good chances. Only the Canes were able to capitalize on one late in the period, however.
With Carlo in the box for the holding the stick, Carolina took a 1–0 lead at 18:04 with a power-play goal from Martin Necas. With Stefan Noesen at the top of the crease taking away Ullmark’s eyes, Necas’ long wrister found its way to the back of the net.
While the B’s managed to fight through the Canes’ defense to get some in-tight chances on Martin – playing his first game for Carolina after getting picked up on waivers from Columbus – breaking out of their zone was a chore.
It got even harder in the second period, which Carolina controlled.
Working on a power play to start the second, the Canes set the tone for a dominant second period, even after they kicked the last few seconds of that that PP. They hemmed the B’s in the Boston zone for most of the first half of the period, at one point outshooting the B’s 8-0.
And when Morgan Geekie was called for tripping, the Canes doubled their lead. Carolina kept the B’s original penalty killers – Marchand, Coyle, Carlo and Derek Forbort – on the ice for 1:39 before finally cashing in. The B’s had a couple of chances to clear but couldn’t and, with Coyle having Teuvo Teravainen’s stick tied up, Teravainen somehow was able to reach through Coyle’s legs with his stick and snap a shot that beat Ullmark at 11:50.
With the way both teams were playing, that Carolina looked like a mountain to climb for the B’s, but they did in just 7:20. Unfortunately for them, they got carried away with their own momentum – and it cost them the game.
“That was a playoff-type game,” said Marchand. “Those are great for us to go through this time of year and learn what we need to do to compete against teams like that.”
Painfully, the B’s also learned what not to do.
