The Boston Bruins pulled out an undeserved victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday, and every good team needs to have a few of those over the course of an 84-game season. The forgiveness for their chronic slow starts and recent chaos in transition comes to an end. This win they will have to earn over the full 60-plus minutes.
Thank you for your service, and thank you to all the agencies government and otherwise helped along with awesome, civic volunteerism to help get more veterans in touch with services to address their needs and those of their families.
Matt Poitras is back in the lineup tonight for Sean Kuraly, the rest of the Boston lineup remains the same. Jack Eichel is starting this game for Vegas, which has Carter Hart in net.
FIRST PERIOD
Jeremy Swayman makes a early stop on a one-timer from the slot by Brett Howden.
Shots are not many seven minutes into the game (3-2 VGK), but that first one could easily have been a goal.
Bruins get their game going with two close calls followed by a James Hagens tally on a sweet setup by Elias Lindholm from behind the Vegas net. Time of the goal: 7:23
Howden to the penalty box for tripping 11 seconds after the Hagens goal, putting the Bruins on the powerplay.
Pavel Zacha loses the puck, and William Karlsson is off to the races, only Zacha stays with it and makes the disruptive pokecheck to cancel the short-handed chance.
Tough shift for Fraser Minten, Marat Khusnutdinov and Morgan Geekie, who were hemmed in the entire time with Jonathan Aspirot and Mason Lohrei desperately trying for an out. The Bruins survived, but Swayman was scrambling at times.
Charlie McAvoy wipes out Trevor Connelly on the end boards, and Vegas responds. There will be penalties out of this TV timeout. No fighting majors, but a Vegas powerplay is expected. Officials are watching video at the timekeeper’s window. Only McAvoy goes for interference at 15:40.
Elias Lindholm and Marat Khusnutdinov are the killers with the Zadorov-Borgen pairing.
Five forwards on the VGK PP. Mark Kastelic skates right around Mitch Marner, but Hart denies him.
VGK second unit has Shea Theodore and Rasmus Andersson at the points. Bruins get the kill.
In the vulnerable minute, Swayman denies Ivan Berbashev at the left post.
Marner picks off a pass and hits the post. Bullet dodged in the final minute of the period.
Bruins’ bounce-back forges an 8-6 shots advantage at first intermission.
1-0 after one.
SECOND PERIOD
Matt Poitras is leaking badly, off the ice and down the tunnel.
No replay on this one, just two bull-gangers applying the ice scraper.
Braeden Bowman is getting a 5-minute major and a game misconduct for elbowing Poitras just 2:49 into the second period.
Bruins have a major powerplay:
Brayden McNabb decks David Pastrnak behind the net but not before Pasta finds Morgan Geekie for the one-timer from the right circle. 2-0 just 33 seconds into the major.
Eichel carries into the Boston zone short-handed, but Lohrei pokes the puck off his stick and starts the other way.
The Bruins are successful working the puck from the point to below the goal line where it’s one-timed into the slot for the one-time shot. They keep connecting on the play, but not all the shots have been clean.
Something’s up in the RW corner (SE corner of the rink). Hagens spun trying to catch a pass, now Pastrnak’s wheeled and fell. Penalty over.
Khusnutdinov gets Poitras’ shift between Kastelic and Tanner Jeannot. The wild guess here is Bowman’s elbow broke Poitras’ nose.
Pressure by VGK’s top line of Eichel, Mark Stone and Barbashev, and the latter slammed Will Borgen into the end boards so hard Borgen had to readjust both elbow pads while skating back into the action. Rattling hit by Barbashev.
Nice work by Vegas under Pastrnak’s pressure to get the puck out and connect with Marc Gatcomb on the off wing, where the fourth-liner had a nice look but couldn’t get it away before an alert Hampus Lindholm got his stick there to tip the shot over the glass.
This game is the Bruins’ best defensive effort since before the 0-2 road trip. There is rough sledding all over the ice for both teams, and Swayman with two goals of support is a great position for the Bruins with 5:50 remaining in the second period.
McAvoy to the penalty box for holding Marner with 5:10 left in the second. Big chance for Vegas to break the ice, and once again the Bruins penalty kill loses the D-zone draw (Elias Lindholm), leading to Stone’s goal following a pair of Swayman saves. Roofed the rebound 8 seconds after puck drop. 2-1.
Now McAvoy’s protest of the call results in a two-minute penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct. Jeannot with a nice bat of the puck to seal the kill. Vegas still feeling it, though, with 2:30 left in the period.
Andersson ties up J-J Peterka’s stick, preventing a shot from the slot.
The Bruins escape the second period with the lead, albeit 2-1. Vegas surges ahead on the shot clock: 17-14 at second intermission.
From the great Matt Vautour of Mass Live: McAvoy’s consecutive minor penalties make up the second such incident this season. Former VGK centerman Matt Roy, now with the Washington Capitals, was the other. If you missed the sequence, McAvoy got the penalty for holding Marner, 8 seconds later VGK scored, McAvoy complained about the call and was immediately sent back into the box before puck drop. The Bruins killed the second powerplay. Coach Marco Sturm, who recently scratched Nikita Zadorov for a game for lack of discipline, cannot be happy with his alternate captain.
