Bruins get best of Bolts
Hold off TB thanks to Tuukka
When Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy stepped to the podium in Brighton yesterday morning and unequivocally announced that Tuukka Rask was going to start last night’s game against the NHL-leading Tampa Bay Lightning, one got the sense that this could be a momentous game in his team’s season.
If Rask was just so-so and the B’s lost, the goalie controversy would rage on. If the team laid an egg in front of him like it did on Sunday against Edmonton, even more questions would arise.
But what Cassidy got for his bold choice of picking Rask instead of hot hand Anton Khudobin was the best of both worlds. Not only did his skaters play well enough to nearly run the Lightning out of the building, but when they needed Rask to make a few big saves down the stretch, he picked up his teammates and helped the B’s walk away with a 3-2 victory at the Garden.
“He stood tall when we needed him to, and all great goaltenders do that,” said defenseman Torey Krug, who scored the game-winner. “He gets a lot of credit because they definitely had their chances and we were a little sloppy at times.”
Rask may have been a leading man in last night’s drama but, as was the case with their loss to the Oilers on Sunday, the game was more about the skaters in front of him. And through 20 minutes, the B’s absolutely dominated the Lightning, who had played in Buffalo on Tuesday and showed it.
With a 19-5 shot advantage in the first, the B’s took a 2-0 lead in those 20 minutes, and it could have been more.
Charlie McAvoy (gamehigh 28:11, plus 2) put the B’s on the board at 7:27, though it took some convincing for the officials. Brad Marchand, playing his first game since Nov.11 and looking to be on his game, backed into goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy slightly at the top of the crease, but got out of there in enough time to see McAvoy’s shot go sailing into the net.
The goal was initially washed out for goalie interference, but Cassidy challenged it. The refs looked at the trusty tablets and deemed it a good goal.
In one of the rare times that the Lightning pressured in the first period, Marchand made a nice backhand feed to the neutral zone for Danton Heinen, who was breaking out with Riley Nash. He dished to Nash and, with defenseman Andrej Sustr possibly getting a blade on the puck, he beat Vasilevskiy high to the glove side at 17:13.
Things got a little testy in the second period. Cedric Paquette drilled Krug into the boards face-first on a dangerous play. Frank Vatrano went after Paquette and the two players wound up both getting double minors in the small fracas.
Then 1:56 later, Marchand and Tampa defenseman Mikhail Sergachev got into a shoving much, with Sergachev getting an interference minor and Marchand two for diving. On the ensuing 4-on-4, Krug got the last laugh when he blasted a nice Ryan Spooner backhand feed past Vasilevskiy at 5:59 for the 3-0 lead.
“Obviously a big goal with the way the game turned out,” said Krug. “But as far as momentum swings, Frankie did a great job of stepping in there and standing up for his teammates. We were able to go get one for him and I give him a lot of credit for that.”
This would not be a laugher, however, as Tampa Bay’s expected push came midway through the second. First, Sustr’s shot found its way through multiple bodies, including Rask, to give the Bolts life at 10:53.
Rask maintained the twogoal lead going into the third, thanks to a great pad save on Nikita Kucherov on a 3-on2, but the Bolts got a quick power-play goal from Steven Stamkos at 2:10 of the third.
Rask, though, would not be beaten again. He stopped 8-of-9 shots in the third, including a terrific pad save on a Ryan Callahan tip late in the game. Vasilevskiy was pulled for an extra skater with 1:23 to go and the B’s survived a couple of icings, including a bad one from Marchand with 2.5 seconds left. But he atoned for it by pouncing on the loose puck on the ensuing faceoff and pushing it out of harm’s way.
In the short term, it was a nice win for the B’s over a quality foe. But in the long term, it could mean much more than the two points. They might just have gotten their No. 1 goalie back.