Hall nets winner vs. Minnesota
BOSTON — Taylor Hall scored a power-play goal 4:49 into overtime, and the Boston Bruins beat the Minnesota Wild 4-3 on Saturday.
Hall, who also had two assists, took a crossing pass from David Pastrnak and one-timed a shot past Marc-Andre Fleury, who had stopped eight shots in OT with the Wild playing most of the extra period short-handed.
Pastrnak scored his fourth goal of the season and Nick Foligno and Hampus Lindholm also scored for the Bruins, who improved to 5-1-0 under new coach Jim Montgomery and remained unbeaten at home.
Fleury stopped 39 shots for the Wild, keeping
Minnesota close through a lopsided second period and giving the Wild a chance in the third, when Jared Spurgeon tied it at 3 with 4:31 left on a shot from the slot through traffic.
The Wild opened the overtime down a man for 1:22, and then went down a man again after David Krejci drew a tripping call on Kirill Kaprizov.
Brandon Duhaime and Matt Boldy scored for the Wild, and Mats Zuccarello had two assists.
The Wild were playing their first road game of the season. They dropped to 1-4-0.
Linus Ullmark made 24 saves for Boston, which opened a 3-1 lead on Lindholm’s goal 6:41 into the second.
Boldy appeared to have his second goal with 14:15 left in the third, but it was disallowed after a video review showed him kicking it in with his right skate.
Minnesota had a 5-on-3 advantage for 57 seconds midway through the third but could not get a shot on goal. Connor Clifton ended up with a short-handed breakaway for Boston after clearing the penalty box but Fleury stopped him.
Pastrnak put Boston up 2-1 when he poked in a rebound after Fleury couldn’t control the rebound on a shot by Hall.
Duhaime gave Minnesota an early lead on a short-handed breakaway, outracing two Bruins to the puck following a turnover and beating Ullmark 1:55 into the game.
Boston dominated the first half of the second period, outshooting Minnesota 11-2 and taking a 3-1 lead on a wrist shot by Lindholm from the slot.
Boston had a chance to increase its advantage after Boldy shot the puck into the seats for a delay of game penalty 9:37 into the period. But the Wild shut down the Bruins’ power play and seemed to gain a little momentum, closing to 3-2 when Boldy redirected a pass from Zuccarello into the net with 4:02 left in the second.
Former Bruins captain Zdeno Chara returned for the ceremonial puck drop, which followed a brief video presentation his career in Boston. Bruins fans cheered throughout, and then roared when the final clip showed the 6-foot-9 Chara hoisting the Stanley Cup.