Vladar blanks former team
Ex-bruins backup hands Swayman first home loss
Just when you thought the Bruins were finding their way, they produced one heck of a stinker at the Garden on Sunday night.
Starting with their top players (and with the exception of their fourth line), the Bruins were outworked and outplayed by the Calgary Flames and they got their just desserts, a 4-0 loss that snapped a three-game winning streak.
Daniel Vladar, the young goalie deemed expendable last offseason, made 27 saves and picked up the shutout victory for Calgary against the team that drafted him in 2015 while rookie Jeremy Swayman suffered his first loss at the Garden (8-1) in his young career.
The B’s top line finished a minus-2 (Brad Marchand had his eight-game point streak snapped) while No. 1 defenseman Charlie Mcavoy was minus-3 in the B’s second shutout loss of the season. It was Calgary’s seventh shutout win in 19 games.
The Flames were on their last stop of a sevengame road trip and, after they spoiled the Islanders homecoming party at the new UBS Arena on Saturday, it appeared as though they desperately wanted to end their sojourn on a high note. Calgary was clearly the better team in the early going and took a 1-0 lead just 1:29 into the game.
Swayman had already been forced to make a good save on Johnny Gaudreau off a rebound of a blocked shot, but he could not catch up to his second chance. Derek Forbort, the two-goal hero from Saturday’s win in Philadelphia, made a soft backhand clear attempt that Matthew Tkachuk easily gobbled up on the left and fed it for Juuso Valimaki at the left point. The defenseman fired a shot that produced a huge rebound off Swayman’s pads. It bounced straight out to Gaurdreau in the right circle and the former Boston College Eagle scored into the half empty net.
The B’s had a great chance to even it up a short time later when Nick Foligno’s long shot produced a big rebound off Vladar. Taylor Hall was looking at a wide open net but the puck just bounced over his stick blade. That was one of the best chances they’d had all night.
For the most part, the B’s were just off on their passes and were not able to sustain any prolonged pressure in the first as the Flames did a good job of suffocating them in the offensive zone.
The B’s were a little more active in the O-zone in the second period, but it was much of the same story. If they got shots through to Vladar, they were usually one-and-done chances.
It almost seemed as if the Flames were biding their time and, at 13:51, they doubled their lead, again off a Swayman rebound. Tkachuk fired what looked like a harmless shot from the right wing boards, but Swayman’s directional save went right to pinching Noah Hanifin and he scored the easy goal.
Former Eagles 2, Bruins 0.
The Flames gave the B’s a chance to get back in the game when a hustling Anton Blidh forced Hanifin to take a high-sticking penalty. But the B’s could not muster much except a David Pastrnak shot that chimed the crossbar.
The B’s were lucky to keep it at a two-goal deficit. Swayman had to make an excellent pad save on Hanifin as time was running out in the second.
The B’s had a last gasp to get in the game when Curtis Lazar drew a penalty at 2:09 into the third, but the Flames snuffed out any of that life with two goals in 1:10, one shorthanded and another just after the penalty was up.
First came the rather embarrassing shorty. Patrice Bergeron dropped a pass to the blue line but no one was home, creating a 2-on-0 for the Flames. Swayman made two saves but, with the B’s top players too slow to get back in the play, Anthony Mangiapane was able to slip his 15th goal of the season on the Flames’ third try.
If anyone thought there was any hope left, Mikael Backlund ended it when his shot from the right wing broke through Swayman and slid just over the line before Charlie Coyle could snatch it back. It was initially waved off, but a quick review showed that it was indeed a goal. And that, for all intents and purposes, was game.