VGK at Bruins

Minus captain Mark Stone (lacerated spleen that could cancel his season), the defending champion Vegas Golden Knights are in town to face the struggling Boston Bruins, who had looked forward to getting on the road only to find themselves looking forward to getting home.

Sparkplug winger Anthony Richard has been assigned to Providence (AHL). Jakub Lauko is back in the lineup at LW on the fourth line with Jesper Boqvist at center and Just Brazeau at RW.

The following A-I image by Daryl Vautour applied to Monday night’s game in Seattle, but it was too good to pass up, so in the name of NHL expansion, I hereby relay to you the “curse of the Kraken.”

Take that, Vegas.

The Boston Bruins have announced that they will hold a grand opening for their new Heritage Hall fan experience on Level 2 of TD Garden beginning at 2:30 pm Tuesday, March 5. CEO Charlie Jacobs, team president Cam Neely, Bruins great Johnny Bucyk and former Bruin/director of the Boston Bruins Foundation.

Here comes a game the Bruins could really use. Did I mention the trade deadline is a week away? (March 1 at 3 pm ET).

Jeremy Swayman vs. Adin Hill in the nets.

Here we go …

FIRST PERIOD

Reunited, David Pastrnak, Charlie Coyle and Brad Marchand almost connected on a relay to the Vegas net.

The Bruins have carried the play through the opening 6:20, peppering Hill with six shots to two on Swayman by the Golden Knights.

Jake DeBrusk and now Charlie McAvoy have missed the net bearing down in the slot.

McAvoy get another look from the slot as the late man, dekes a defender and gets his shot onto Hill, who gobbles it up. That was the Bruins’ first shot in over three-and-a-half minutes, but no shots for Vegas either during that stretch.

Pastrnak partial breakaway, but Hill squeezes his ankles as he spins out of the crease on his knees. Big save, still scoreless at TDG.

Keegan Kolesar and Nicholas Roy go digging, but nothing doing as Swayman ties up the puck at the left post.

Marchand slot, save Hill. Bruins are getting Grade A’s…

The Bruins broke through at 14:34 when Trent Frederic sprung Morgan Geekie to a spot pass breakaway that he fired past Hill for a 1-0 Boston lead.

Jesper Boqvist made it 2-0 30 seconds later after Kevin Shattenkirk set the play in motion from the right point. Jakub Lauko got the puck and sent a spinning pass from behind the Vegas net to an open Boqvist, who fired into the open side of the net, 2-0.

Geekie got his second of the game with 3:06 left in the first period, beating Hill from the off wing to make it 3-0. Vintage Pasta play, faking shot and just holding on to what looked like a wrist shot but stayed on his stick long enough to become a perfect, cross-ice pass.

Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy kept Hill in the net.

Shots for the first period: 16-8 Boston.

SECOND PERIOD

Paul Cotter bats an aerial into the net behind Swayman 1:48 into the second period, and the Golden Knights have a pulse. 3-1 … Roy and Shea Theodore credited with assists.

Vegas continued its surge and Alex Pietrangelo cut the lead to 3-2, burying a third chance at 6:58. A classic make something out of nothing play that began with a puck battle between the benches in which the Bruins had outnumbered the Golden Knights. Coach Montgomery will wince in his sleep over this one.

Prior to, Mason Lohrei made too ambitious a puck-lug between VGK forecheckers, plotting to pass the puck to partner Brandon Carlo, but Carlo peeled away at just the wrong moment and Vegas got the puck. Michael Amadio was isolated in front, but Swayman somehow got in the way of his attempt.

Shots are 19-18 Boston with 11:07 left in the second period (10-3 Vegas in the second period).

Carlo to the box for ripping off Cotter’s helmet (not stealing it). Vegas to the powerplay. Bang-bang to William Karlsson in the slot, but Swayman makes the save and Coyle clears.

Heinen anticipated a bouncing puck giving Theodore trouble at the right point and he was right. Heinen shot his short-handed breakaway bid wide of the left post. Heinen was on the fumes when he got another break and realized he had to leg it out, but that one wasn’t successful either.

What was successful was the Bruins penalty kill; the Bruins got two of the three best chances of the Vegas powerplay.

Right after the kill was complete, Pavel Zacha and Shattenkirk has a 2-on-1, but Pietrangelo broke up Shattenkirk’s pass attempt.

Pietrangelo, in ensuing action behind the Vegas net, caught Pastrnak in the kisser. Nothing doing from the refs.

Delayed reaction from the TDG crowd upon realizing that Geekie tipped home Pastrnak’s wrist shot from the left circle with 3:28 remaining the second period. 4-2 Boston when an answer was needed.

A Michael Ryder-like move by the right-shooting Pastrnak out from the LW corner and into that circle, his stick inside and the puck flung through Geekie’s screen – Geekie, cutting across, got a piece of it.

And, just like that, Amadio brings Vegas back to within one (4-3) with a neat conversion of a centering feed with 2:14 left in the period.

Shots are 22-22. That’s how good of a period the Golden Knights have had.

Final minute of the period was a doozy.

Parker Wotherspoon had open space ahead of the left point and walked in, but Hill blocked away his wrist shot aimed for the top left (near) corner, and Vegas was off to the races on a 3-on-1. Jonathan Marchessault carried down right wing, but Carlo picked off his pass to the middle, and the Bruins escaped further damage.

Shots after two periods: 24-23 Boston.

THIRD PERIOD

Big shift for Vegas, but Kolesar off for crosschecking Wotherspoon to the ice at 3:08. Bruins to the powerplay for the first time tonight. Delay for Swayman (equipment … left skate or pad strap).

The Bruins put on a great puck-possession display but forgo shooting the puck until the balcony starts screaming at the players. Finally, Hill stops a goalmouth feed to Marchand. Now Pastrnak has a bouncing puck in the high slot, this is trouble. Chandler Stephenson takes off with it with help from Roy and beats Swayman over the glove to tie the game 4-4 at the 5:01 mark. Second short-handed goal of the season for Stephenson.

This crowd has gone silent.

Vegas pressures the Bruins, but when Boston finally gets back on the attack Lauko frees up the puck with help from Boqvist and Brazeau. McAvoy, who seems to be out there a lot in the third period, takes the relay and finds Boqvist wide open, but he waits as Hill cuts down the angle and a hard shot won’t get through.

Pastrnak complains to the ref about a shove from Cotter as he was on the chase to the end boards. Then Boqvist got dumps outside the Vegas zone, and Sheldon Remphal goes to the box with 6:25 left in regulation.

Bruins get another powerplay late in a 4-4 game.

Pastrnak fans on the puck at the right point, but the Bruins are regrouping so not a break for Vegas, Hill stops Zacha from the left circle.

Mason Lohrei finds daylight from the right circle wide of the dot with 12 seconds left on the PIM and 4:37 left in regulation time. 5-4 Boston.

Bad icing call against the Bruins, but they win the draw and will make Vegas go 200 feet.

DeBrusk has his legs over the boards on a change and he almost gets hit by a Vegas pass at the Boston bench (contact would have been too many men on the ice). Instead, it was icing on Vegas. Just missed him.

Here comes Vegas’s big chance, as Matt Grzelcyk is whistled off with 2:59 left in the third period. Bruins lead, 5-4.

Vegas to the powerplay…

Marchand with a short-handed bid, save Hill, but faceoff in the Vegas end. 1:33 left on Grzelcyk’s PIM, 2:31 on the game clock. Bruce Cassidy calls uses his timeout, obviously a big part of it to set a strategy for getting Hill out of the net for a sixth attacker.

Hill to the bench with 1:45 left in the game and 45 seconds on Grzelcyk’s penalty for holding the opponent’s stick.

Big scrum in front, Swayman freezes the puck.

Jim Montgomery uses his timeout with 1:38 left (40 seconds on Grizz).

Coyle wins the draw, Bruins clear. Vegas gets it back, Stephenson, save Swayman. That was it. Grizz is out, so’s the puck.

Vegas cuts off the halfwall plays and gets another shot, but it sizzles wide of the far post.

Faceoff in the Bruins zone with 12.9 seconds. Coyle didn’t win the draw, but he blocked the final shot, and the Bruins finally survive a comeback bid, this one from the defending Stanley Cup champion. Bruins win, 5-4.