Ugly truth in B’s victory
Nothing pretty in home win
It doesn’t matter how many pimples, scars or other blemishes a victory bears these days.
The way the Bruins’ lineup is currently constituted, any win is a beauty.
The Bruins got a pair of greasy goals from two guys who had yet to score this season — Riley Nash and Sean Kuraly — and rode steady goaltending from Tuukka Rask (28 saves) to nail down a 2-1 win over the Vegas Golden Knights last night at the Garden.
A couple of dirty goals, good netminding and solid special teams work (3-for3 on the penalty kill), that’s pretty much the formula for winning for the Bruins at the moment.
“I think that’s a realistic way to win games,” said Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy. “There are going to be times that it might not look pretty. But if we can get through those stretches and get back on our game...
“I think tonight was a good example of that. People forget, Vegas was 8-3. I don’t care who they have in nets. They have a good hockey team. We saw it out there. It wasn’t an easy game at all.”
While the Golden Knights are on their fourth-string netminder, Maxime Lagace, the Bruins are missing significant numbers. The Bruins went without two of their top three centers, David Krejci (back) and Ryan Spooner (groin tear). They were missing their secondline center fill-in David Backes (colon surgery), who is also one of the team’s vocal leaders, plus defenseman Adam McQuaid (broken fibula) and forward Noel Acciari (broken finger).
Since the start of the season, when center Patrice Bergeron and Backes each missed the first five games, Cassidy has plugged holes with more young players than even he expected to use. Last night, Austin Czarnik was brought up from Providence and AHL veteran Jordan Szwarz made his Bruins debut. Both played well, with Czarnik picking up an assist.
“It’s been crazy,” said Nash. “You come to the rink and you see two new faces almost every day. But it’s nice for those young guys to get a chance. We’ve all got a lot to prove and everyone’s doing a good job of pulling on the rope and finding chemistry as fast as possible.”
It was especially important for the Bruins to get some secondary scoring against last night’s foe. Cassidy loaded up on a potent first line of Brad Marchand, Bergeron and David Pastrnak, but that trio was neutralized by the work required to keep Vegas’ top line of Erik Haula, David Perron and James Neal off the board.
The B’s were also helped by the resurgence of defenseman Torey Krug, who made a couple of bad giveaways early in the game before picking up assists on both Bruins goals.
On Kuraly’s winner, Krug stole Deryk Engelland’s breakout pass in the neutral zone and went on the attack. After his initial shot was blocked, he gathered the puck again and fired a pass to Jake DeBrusk for a redirect. Lagace got a piece of it, but Kuraly stormed the net and put in the rebound as Vegas defenseman Brayden McNabb cross-checked him from behind.
“That’s what it takes to score in this league,” Krug said of Kuraly.
The B’s took the first lead of the game in the second period on a third chance shot. Nash followed up a rebound of a Krug point shot, but hit the post. Czarnik flipped the long rebound back at Lagace, who couldn’t handle the puck as Nash banged it home.
Vegas scratched back, Nate Schmidt picked the pocket of DeBrusk and set
up Cody Eakin for the only shot that beat Rask.
The B’s stuck with it, however, and got the only goal of the third. The Bruins then killed off a holding penalty to defenseman Charlie McAvoy with 4:39 left to grind out the victory.
“It was a very hard-fought game,” said Zdeno Chara. “A lot of battles, a lot of physicality, not that many pretty plays, some breakdowns. Both goalies played well. Obviously we found a very playoff-like goal that decided the game. A simple play to the net. Sean had a never-give-up attitude and got rewarded.”
One way to look at it: the B’s snapped a two-game losing streak. But the win also gave the Bruins points in six straight (3-0-3).