The Bruins may not be a great team, especially with the way they’re currently constituted. But they do battle as well as any team on most nights. And they did so yet again on Friday, earning a 5-4 win against the New York Islanders.
Playing catch-up all night, the B’s tied the Islanders late in the third period and then killed off a phantom David Pastrnak tripping call with 17 seconds left in regulation, extinguishing most of it in overtime. After a scoreless overtime, Charlie Coyle and Pastrnak scored in the shootout to lift the B’s to victory at UBS Arena.
The game started slowly, but once it ramped up late in the second period, it was a roller coaster ride until the end. The B’s were not the better team all night, but Linus Ullmark was spectacular again, making 33 saves, plus two more in the shootout, and the B’s notched three power-play goals for the win. There were times when it looked like it just wasn’t going to be their night, but the B’s simply made it so.
“I think this is the win of the year,” said coach Jim Montgomery.
Pastrnak scored the walk-off shootout goal, pulling the puck behind him and ripping off a wrister to beat goalie Ilya Sorokin and send the B’s back to Boston with three out of four points on the two-game roadie. It’s a move we’ve seen before and one that Montgomery has likened to the corkscrew delivery of former Red Sox pitcher Luis Tiant.
“I’ve been practicing that shot every day,” Pastrnak told NESN. “I know Sorokin is a really good goalie. I knew the moves I had in my bag wouldn’t beat him so I tried that one.”
It was one of the wilder nights of the season.
The B’s had erased a two-goal deficit with two quick ones late in the second period, but the Islanders regained their lead on a third-period power play at 5:06. With time running down on Kevin Shattenkirk’s tripping penalty, old friend Mike Reilly made a nice keep in and backhand pass to Brock Nelson, who in turn fed a wide-open Bo Horvat in the slot for the go-ahead goal.
It looked like the B’s tied it up at 9:39 when, in a pileup at the crease, Brad Marchand pushed the puck into the net as he was being tripped by Andes Lee. It was originally called a goal on the ice but, after a lengthy review, it was ruled that Marchand pushed it home with his glove.
But the penalty on Lee stood, and the B’s evened it on the PP. Shattenkirk made a beautiful slap pass for James van Riemsdyk to tip home at 10:48.
They couldn’t stay even. After an extended shift in the Boston end, Coyle was forced to take a hooking penalty and, 11 seconds later, Nelson pushed the Isles back ahead when he scored off a rebound off the end boards at 12:01.
But with 3:09 left in regulation, rookie Mason Lohrei pounced on a loose puck in the corner and banked it home off goalie Ilya Sorokin for his second of the year. That would eventually send it to OT and then the shootout.
“In the third period, the energy, the emotion and the resiliency to just keep coming back, never say die, you could feel it on the bench that we would continue to push,” said Montgomery.
After a scoreless first in which the Isles had the edge in play, it took the hosts just 1:42 of the second to take the lead. The B’s were at the end of a shift when Geekie tried to flip it ahead to Pastrnak but it was just out of Pastrnak’s reach and went all the way down for an icing. The Islanders then took advantage of a tired Bruin group. Mathew Barzal beat Geekie on the draw back to Horvat, who attracted Pastrnak. That left Alexander Romanov wide open at the left point. The defenseman skated to the top of the circle and simply beat Ullmark past the glove for the 1-0 lead.
But Ullmark continued to keep the B’s in it while Sorokin was having an easy night of it at the other end. He made a tremendous post-to-post blocker save on a 3-on-1 on Kyle Palmieri.
It briefly looked like the Isles had taken a 2-0 lead at 11:10 when another Romanov shot found the back of the net, but it was quickly waved off due to goalie interference on Hudson Fasching.
But the Islanders got their two-goal lead at 13:26. Shattenirk whiffed on a bouncing puck high in the offensive zone and the Isles were off on a 2-on-1 with Jean-Gabriel Pageau feeding Simon Holmstrom for the goal.
It didn’t look promising at that point. but New York’s Julien Gauthier was called for tripping off the ensuing faceoff and the B’s got back in the game in a wild sequence on the power play. The Isles had another 2-on-1 with the same two players. Ullmark made the initial save on Pageau and it appeared Holmstrom had wide open net at which to shoot, but Ullmark somehow just got his skate on the shot and the B’s broke the other way.
At the other end, van Riemsdyk fed Geekie in the slot for his second goal in as many games and the B’s were back within a goal at 14:45.
“The only reason we have a chance to make it 2-2 is he’s already made 10-bell saves and then he continues to do throughout the game,” said Montgomery of Ullmark.
They would even it before the period was out when the Isles took a too-many-men penalty. The B’s did a great job controlling the puck high in the zone before Shattenkirk slipped a beautiful cross-ice pass for Pastrnak, who scored his 17th on a one-timer at 17:26.
The B’s, outshot 29-19 after two, may not have deserved the tie score going into the second break, but there they were. And the best was yet to come.
