Canucks fall to old nemesis, Bruins
BOSTON — David Pastrnak scored with two minutes left in the third period, and the Boston Bruins won their second straight game under interim coach Bruce Cassidy with a 4-3 victory over the visiting Vancouver Canucks on Saturday afternoon.
Cassidy took over earlier in the week when the Bruins fired Claude Julien, who was in his 10th season and coached the team to a 2011 Stanley Cup win — defeating Vancouver in the final. Boston also won in Cassidy’s debut, 6-3 over San Jose on Thursday.
Frank Vatrano had a goal and two assists, and Kevan Miller and Colin Miller each had a goal for the Bruins, who posted their fifth win in seven games.
Backup goaltender Anton Khudobin made 29 saves for Boston. Ryan Miller had 26 for the Canucks.
The Canucks had made it 3-3 on Markus Granlund’s goal with 5:37 left in the third.
Pastrnak took a pass along the left wing, slid the puck backward to himself before slipping a wrister past Miller.
“To give it up with two minutes left is hard,” said Canucks coach Willie Desjardins.
“I thought we battled hard enough to win,” added Canucks forward Loui Erikssson, who spent three seasons with the Bruins before signing a $36-million, six-year contract with Vancouver during the off-season.
Bo Horvat scored for Vancouver, giving him 100 career points. He’s the first Canucks player to reach that mark at 21 years old or younger since Petr Nedved did it at 21 in 1993. Alex Burrows had the other goal, his first since Dec. 31.
Down 2-1, the Canucks tied it on Burrows’ goal out of a scramble with six-tenths of a second left in the second period.
With the fans barely settled into their seats after the Bruins honoured the Super Bowl champion Patriots during an on-ice pregame ceremony, Horvat scored on a rebound 4:56 into the game to give Vancouver an early lead.
Fourteen members of the Patriots were on hand, wearing Bruins jerseys with their names and numbers on the back.
Running back James White dropped the ceremonial first puck.
The teams meet again in Vancouver on March 13.