In the Stanley Cup playoffs, it’s often a fine line between a great win and a devastating loss. So was the case for the Bruins in Thursday night’s Game 3 against the Islanders.
With Brandon Carlo getting hurt with just under 14 minutes left in the third and the Islanders then tying the game with 5:26 left in regulation, Game 3 came dangerously close to heading down the path towards heartbreak for the Bruins.
Instead, it ended in elation, with Brad Marchand beating Semyon Varlamov on a bad-angle shot 3:36 into overtime to give the Bruins a 2-1 win and 2-1 series lead.
The goal punctuated what was mostly an excellent night for the Bruins, one in which they displayed a lot of characteristics you expect to see from a Stanley Cup contender.
They went into a hostile, nearly full road environment for the first time this postseason, they faced a very good team that came out playing the way they want to play (physical, defensive, energetic), they faced adversity, and they won.
This wasn’t in a 25% full building like they dealt with in Washington in the first round. This wasn’t against a Capitals team that seemed to wilt as that series went. This wasn’t even against the Islanders team the Bruins faced in Game 1 of this series, one that didn’t really seem ready and certainly didn’t play its best.
This looked like the same Islanders team that came alive in the second period of Game 2. And Nassau Coliseum, like TD Garden for Games 1 and 2, was the real deal in terms of playoff atmosphere.
While scoring chances were hard to come by for both teams early on, the Bruins took advantage of one of their first when Taylor Hall made a great defensive play to steal the puck from Mathew Barzal on the backcheck and then set up Craig Smith with a nice pass into the slot before Smith fired a shot into the top corner.
On a night when the Bruins’ top line didn’t dominate quite as much as usual (although they did still generate eight scoring chances), the second line of Hall, Smith and David Krejci -- with Smith back in after missing one game due to injury -- was there to do damage. With those three on the ice Thursday, the Bruins outshot the Islanders 10-0. In Hall’s 16:37 of five-on-five ice time, that advantage was 15-0.
For the next 40 or so minutes, the Bruins slowly wrestled more and more control away from the home team, and their crowd. In the second period, the Bruins outshot the Islanders 13-4 at five-on-five. Most of the Islanders’ only real chances came on a power play they got as the result of a questionable slashing call against David Pastrnak.
Boston then came out flying in the third and recorded the first eight shots of the period, including five on an early power play in which the Bruins’ top unit did everything except score. That increasingly became the point of concern, though: Semyon Varlamov was excellent in the Islanders net, and the Bruins couldn’t find a way to extend their lead.
Then everything seemed to change with the Carlo injury, and the Bruins found themselves on the ropes. Barzal tied it. Anthony Beauvillier got a breakaway chance a couple minutes later, but Tuukka Rask stoned him. Then the Islanders went to the power play with 2:15 to go, but the Boston penalty kill stepped up once again, completing a perfect 3-for-3 night one game after giving up two power-play goals.
The Islanders carried their momentum into overtime, though, registering five of the first six shots of the extra period. After several days of talk about his health and questions about whether he was moving slower than usual, Rask continued to provide an emphatic response and stood on his head, including making a great save on a Barzal rebound chance to keep a terrific goaltending duel going.
While Rask only showed the one small crack on New York’s tying goal, which was really more the product of a defensive misread than anything, Varlamov eventually showed a big one, getting beat by Marchand on what should have been a nothing shot from a seemingly impossible angle.
“I thought we played a really, really solid road game,” said Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy. “Good on the penalty kill. Overcame an injury to our guy, so we had a short bench. Did a lot of things well. Gave up a late lead on a bit of a misread. It wasn’t some sort of huge breakdown. We found a way. Good for Brad. Again, it doesn’t matter where it comes from as long as it finds the back of the net, especially this time of year. We’re going to enjoy it, look at some stuff tomorrow that we can do better, things we did well, and keep building on that part of our game, and look forward to Game 4.”
The Bruins were tested in just about every way Thursday night -- by a raucous crowd on the road; by a tough, physical, defensive team that was on its game; by a hot goalie; by an injury to a key player; and by a late tying goal and momentum swing.
And they won. They fought through it all and came out victorious. Rask was excellent in net, and the Bruins’ top two lines found a way to break through the Islanders’ defense and Varlamov. Now they’ve done what was needed -- win at least one of two on the road -- and will have a chance to take a commanding 3-1 series lead back to Boston.
It wasn’t the Bruins’ most dominant win of the playoffs so far, but given all those challenges and the resiliency that was required of them, it was their best.
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