Back in business
Bruins return to win column coming off holiday break
BUFFALO — The Bruins extended their holiday celebration Wednesday night, returning from a three-day Christmas break and pinning a convincing 4-1 loss on the Sabres at KeyBank Center, paced by a pair of power-play goals by Charlie Coyle and the near air-tight goaltending of Jeremy Swayman.
The victory snapped the Bruins’ four-game losing streak (0-2-2), the longest under coach Jim Montgomery since he took over the Blackand-Gold
bench prior to the start of last season.
Morgan Geekie, who was promoted to first-line center duty on a new trio with Pavel Zacha to his left and David Pastrnak on the right side, also scored on the man advantage. Mason Lohrei connected for the other Bruins goal, the rookie defenseman’s third career strike opening the night’s scoring.
Jake DeBrusk picked up a pair of assists for his first multi-point game, 33 games into the season.
Erik Johnson scored Buffalo’s lone goal, ending Swayman’s bid for a third shutout at 5:11 of the third period. Swayman finished with 25 saves.
“Feel better . . . good . . . the thing is, coming out of the break, three days off,” mused Montgomery, “it’s not going to be a real clean game. We had moments where we struggled, but overall, it was a pretty good hockey game for us.”
After moving to a 2-0 lead in the opening 14:00 of the first period, the Bruins doubled the margin in the second with a pair of power-play goals.
Coyle, who scored on the advantage in the first period, knocked in his second PPG of the night at 4:18 of the second, connecting for his 12th goal of the season on what was intended as a pass. Set up by DeBrusk just a few feet off the right post, Coyle shot toward the far post, only to see the puck ricochet in off defenseman Johnson for the 3-0 lead.
Geekie, his offensive profile in the lineup trending upward since
early December, made it 4-0 at 13:44, his shot from a bad angle ticking off the chest of a sprawled Sabres goalie Devon Levi (21 saves) and bleeding over the line for his sixth goal of the season.
During their losing streak, the Bruins scored only seven goals, not nearly enough ever to gain a comfortable lead. Against the Sabres, despite landing only seven shots in the opening period, they moved to a 2-0 lead in the opening 14 minutes. Not enough to relax, but at least enough to log easier miles while playing downhill.
“You always want to get out to a lead if you can,” noted Coyle, “and then it’s up to us to push that lead, build on our game, play the right way.”
“I actually thought our first period was our best period,” added Montgomery, “as far keeping it simple. We wanted to simplify our game, be sure that we were going through bodies, that we were giving and going — putting pucks to areas where we could continue to possess.”
Lohrei started the scoring, racing down the slot as James van Riemsdyk unloaded with a long shot off Trent Frederic’s feed in from the left wing and finishing off the rebound. Lohrei initially made a clever dipsydoodle play along the blue line, keeping the puck in the zone, then followed with a short pass to Frederic, who alertly centered into the slot for the shot-ready van Riemsdyk to unload on Levi.
The goal, at 4:19, tied Lohrei with Charlie McAvoy for most goals by a Black-and-Gold defenseman.
Coyle’s first power-play strike, only his second goal since Nov. 25, came at 13:42 on a point-blank snap wrister under the crossbar, reminiscent of the pucks John Bucyk tucked to the top shelf over the course of his Hall of Fame career. DeBrusk, with a feed from Brad Marchand, wheeled behind the net and set up Coyle with a smooth forehand feed.
Earlier in the period, Marchand let his temper get the best of him when he was whistled off for a tickytack cross check in the neutral zone at 7:31. Duly irate, he began barking at the officials on his way to the penalty box, repeatedly brushing his sleeve as a way of saying he barely touched Buffalo’s Dylan Cozens. The refs had enough and tagged Marchand with an extra two minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Marchand also is one of the club’s top penalty-killers, which didn’t help the cause. Nonetheless, the Bruins killed the four minutes and allowed the Sabres only one shot. Marchand came within a whisker of scoring seconds after the kill ended, skating into a puck as he popped out of the penalty box and raced in on Levi.
Montgomery was particularly impressed by DeBrusk, who also landed three shots on net in his 16:19 time on ice.
“I thought Jake was our best forward tonight,” Montgomery said. “His habits . . . his speed was noticeable in checking . . . hanging on to pucks, making real good decisions. It makes a big difference when he’s the player we know he can be.”
“Any time you win, it helps,” DeBrusk said. “I think that means there’s a lot of things we were doing right. As a group, obviously, we didn’t like how it ended going into the break. We had a couple days to reset. Good effort tonight, with good goaltending from Sway, and just rolled with it.”