B’s let another get away
Squander lead in shootout loss in NY
NEW YORK — The Bruins appeared to be well on their way to their third straight victory when they blinked.
After coughing up a twogoal lead in the third period, the Bruins lost to the Rangers 4-3 in a shootout, with Tony DeAngelo beating Jaroslav Halak in the eighth round. David Krejci missed the net on final chance for the B’s, who had to settle for one point.
The B’s took a 3-1 lead into the final frame after second period goals by Danton Heinen, David Pastrnak and Patrice Bergeron, but after playing very well defensively in the first half of the third period they collapsed.
They allowed the Rangers to creep to within a goal on a rare loose defensive play. Zdeno Chara and Brandon Carlo allowed the Rangers the middle of the ice and that had the B’s scrambling. Eventually Kevin Hayes scored into an open net at 9:24 to make it 3-2.
Then the Blueshirts tied it at 12:41. With Charlie McAvoy in the box for crosschecking, Filip Chytil scored on a rebound of a Pavel Buchnevich shot.
The two teams could not settle the score in a back and forth overtime and then went to the skills competition.
The Bruins had been very good in the second game of back-to-backs (7-1-1 coming in) but came out sluggish in this one, at one point getting outshot 9-2. It was a battle of the backups and both Jaroslav Halak and Alexander Georgiev played well in the first.
While it was quiet in the early going for Henrik Lundqvist’s understudy, he saw some rubber when the B’s got their first power play of the game at 13:39 of the first. As the advantage was up, he made a solid stop on McAvoy from the bottom of the right circle. A promising rebound bounced into the open slot but Heinen could net get to it. Earlier in the game, Georgiev also made a good save on Chris Wagner’s shorthanded bid.
The Rangers got on the board with the first period’s lone goal at 17:45. Mats Zuccarello was able to wheel out into the corner when Matt Grzelcyk got his stick caught in the net. Zuccarello spotted an open Mika Zibanejad out in the high slot and Zibanejad blasted a slapper past Halak.
Tempers flared late in the period when Sean Kuraly collided with Boo Nieves high in the zone, with Nieves getting the worst of it. Seeing his teammate slow to get up, Jimmy Vesey crosschecked Kuraly from behind. Kuraly got up and made a bee line toward Vesey, but couldn’t get to him. Eventually, both got tossed for minors, Kuraly for roughing and Vesey for crosschecking.
After killing off a Kevan Miller penalty early in the second, Pastrnak had a couple of glorious chances that went for naught.
First Brad Marchand broke out with him on an odd-man rush and completely sold Georgiev on the shot. Marchand, however, made a pass over to Pastrnak, who would have had an open net at which to shoot but could not get his blade on the puck. Then, on a shift with Krejci and Peter Cehlarik, he had an open shot on Georgiev, but the netminder stoned him.
With not much happening for the B’s, coach Bruce Cassidy mixed up three of the four line combos and it quickly paid dividends.
First, Heinen got the B’s on the board at 10:37 when he scored on a high tip of a Grzelcyk shot.
Then the second line cashed in on a beautiful play. Peter Cehlarik won a puck in the corner to get back out high to Miller, who made a terrific down low to Krejci below the left circle. Krejci in turn made a perfect pass to Pastrnak, who had an easy tap-in from the top of the crease.