Hurricanes get revenge on the Bruins
Boston’s four-game win streak snapped
Perhaps the Bruins were due for a stinker in this tough stretch of their schedule. And the Carolina Hurricanes were only too happy to deliver it to them.
After the B’s beat the Canes in Carolina 4-1 last week, the B’s showed they could be hospitable hosts as well, dropping a 4-1 decision at the Garden as the Hurricanes rode a dominant second period to the victory on Tuesday.
The loss ended a good run for the B’s, a fourgame win streak over four playoff teams in Washington, Nashville, Carolina and Florida. And with just three games left in the regular season, the B’s tipped their collective cap to Carolina while keeping the loss in perspective.
“This is just one game tonight,” said Charlie McAvoy, who had the B’s lone goal. “It’s hard to win in this league and it’s a grind overall. But I think we’ve displayed how we can play. Tonight we just didn’t do enough of it. But I think we’ve been working towards our game. Every team is going to have lulls and we happened to have that tonight. They played better than us and definitely well enough to win. But overall I think we’ve been building (our game).”
In Carolina last week, the B’s posted an early 3-0 lead and frustrated the Canes the rest of the night. But Carolina is a different team when playing with the lead. The Canes took a 2-1 lead into the third period and extended it with a couple more goals, including a nail-in-the-coffin shorthanded tally, to take the win.
“You notice that playing against them,” said Trent Frederic. “You don’t want them to get the lead and when they do, they’re a different team. They’re more strict once they get that lead. They’re not cheating for offensive, so it makes it more difficult for us.”
It was a hard-hitting but scoreless first period — but the B’s were fortunate on the latter counter.
Just 1:59 into the game, Martin Necas looked like he had caught Jeremy Swayman napping when he fired a puck from the along the goal line and appeared to have banked it in. It was called a goal on the ice but it was reviewed — extensively — and it was ruled that the puck had not crossed the line. It was extremely close. Brandon Carlo had made an attempt to keep it out and, though he couldn’t control the puck, he did appear to at least slow its momentum which must have helped a sliver of the puck stay on the line.
There were not a ton of great scoring chances for either team in the first, with shots at a measly 4-4. It did appear as though the B’s were looking to make a point with their physicality. They landed 18 hits in the period, several of them heavy ones, to the Hurricanes’ 14.
The aggression nearly cost them in the early going of the second period. With Morgan Geekie already in the box for tripping. Brad Marchand was called for kneeing Stefan Noesen with 14 seconds left on the first power play. But then Charlie Coyle won two faceoffs to kill off the short 5-on-3 and, thanks to a couple of good Swayman saves, the B’s killed the second PP as well.
But disaster was lurking.
On a later shift, the B’s got themselves in hot water when first Parker Wotherspoon and then Andrew Peeke missed chances to clear the puck. Swayman again made several good stops and it was beginning to look like it would take a great play to beat him.
The Hurricanes, who held a 15-6 shot advantage in the second, got one.
With Carolina storming the Boston zone, Andrei Svechnikov scooped up the puck behind the net and, in lacrosse-style known as the “The Michigan,” ripped it off the back crossbar. It bounced out so fast that it was initially washed out by the refs but the horn soon sounded and it was eventually scored a goal at 10:55.
“He’s so good at that. I can’t believe it,” said Swayman with a rueful chuckle. “My goal was to never get Michigan’d, so that was put in the toilet today.”
Not much was going on offensively for the B’s — they had just one shot on net through the first 15:48 — so coach Jim Montgomery loaded up Marchand with David Pastrnak (minus-3) and Pavel Zacha (minus-3) with McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm. Instead of jump-starting the offense, the B’s were looking at a 2-0 deficit when Teuvo Teravainen got position on Lindholm to tap in a Svechnikov pass for a 2-0 Carolina lead at 13:05, the puck just eluding Swayman’s pad.
The B’s finally pushed back late in the second.
They did little with their first power play but they managed to get on the board at 16:56 on a helterskelter sequence initiated and finished off by McAvoy. First the defenseman was forced behind the Carolina net and he tried to feed the puck to Frederic out front. It didn’t connect but went to Jesper Boqvist out high and Boqvist fed Jakub Lauko in the slot. Lauko’s shot was partially blocked, but it went right to McAvoy in the left circle and he banked it off goalie Pyotr Kochetkov and in.
That pulled the B’s within striking distance heading into the third. And they did start to get some shots on Kotchetkov, holding a 13-7 shot advantage in the final period. But Carolina regained their two-goal lead at 10:14. Jake Guentzel followed a rebound off a Dmitry Orlov shot and Swayman got a piece of it. As it sat behind the netminder in the crease, Zacha swooped in to save the day but was a little too strong. Instead of shoveling the puck back underneath Swayman, he banked in off the netminder to make it 3-1.
The B’s had one last chance to get back in it when they got another power play with 6:48 left, but they gave up a bad shorthanded goal to Jarvis to all but end it. Right off the bat, Jarvis created a partial break for himself and Swayman made the initial save. But Jarvis was allowed to get his own rebound behind the net and score on the wraparound.