For the fourth straight game, and the fifth time in the last six, the Bruins went to overtime Thursday night in Calgary.
After winning the last two – in a shootout against Dallas on Monday and on Charlie McAvoy’s OT winner in Edmonton on Wednesday – Boston dropped this one, with old nemesis Nazem Kadri scoring the winner 3:55 into the extra session to give the Flames a 3-2 win.
Is Mason Lohrei here to stay?
Early on, it looked like this was going to be a long night for the Bruins, as they started slow on the second night of a back-to-back and trailed 2-1 after the first period. They could have been on their way to another stinker against the Flames, the same team that beat them 4-1 in Boston a couple weeks ago.
Instead, the Bruins dug in and showed a lot more fight this time, outplaying Calgary for much of the final 40 minutes. They tied the game early in the third on Charlie Coyle’s second goal of the night, and then had several golden opportunities to win the game, especially in overtime.
Coyle himself had a hat trick chance from the slot late in regulation, but just missed the net. In overtime, McAvoy had a 2-on-1 chance saved by Jacob Markstrom. Then he set up Jesper Boqvist for a one-time chance seconds later, only to have Markstrom stop that as well. Mason Lohrei hit the crossbar, and then David Pastrnak couldn’t beat Markstrom on a 2-on-0 that came right before Kadri’s winner.
“It kind of stings when you don’t get the full two [points], but you can’t really fault our effort too much,” Coyle said. “I think it was right there. We play well on the road, that’s something to build on.”
Here are three takeaways from the game:
Coyle busts out of goal drought
Coyle entered Thursday with no goals in the last eight games, and just one point in the last six. He put an end to that by providing all the Bruins’ scoring against the Flames.
His first goal tied the game at one late in the first period. Markstrom came way out of his net after a Lohrei stretch pass got away from Brad Marchand, but made a bad clear. Coyle kept it in the zone and then fired past the retreating Markstrom.
His second tied it at two. After Anthony Richard showed great composure to make a looping indirect pass from his own zone, Coyle tracked the puck down and finished with a nice move to the backhand around Markstrom.
Coyle is now up to 20 goals on the season, one shy of his career high set back in 2015-16. He’s up to 48 points in 58 games and is on pace to finish with 68, which would blow past his career high of 56 set in 2016-17.
A frustrating night for Pastrnak
Right before Kadri’s game-winning goal, Pastrnak led a 2-on-0 with McAvoy. He opted to take the shot himself and tried to beat Markstrom five-hole, but Markstrom shut the door and the Flames went right back the other way for the win.
It’s fair to wonder if passing to McAvoy and at least getting Markstrom moving would’ve been a better decision. That said, Pastrnak is one of the best goal-scorers in the world and obviously saw something in Markstrom’s posture that he thought he could take advantage of.
It was a frustrating night for Pastrnak even before that. Late in the second period, with the Bruins on the power play, Pastrnak made a great stick check to force a turnover and set up a scoring chance for Pavel Zacha… and got called for a penalty. The ref apparently thought he saw a slash, even though there was nothing close to one. That robbed the Bruins of 1:16 of power-play time.
Then late in the third, Flames forward Martin Pospisil, who got ejected for crosschecking Marchand in the head two weeks ago, hit Pastrnak from behind long after he had gotten rid of the puck. It should have been a no-brainer penalty call and a late power play for the Bruins, but the refs either didn’t see it or just didn’t feel like calling it.
Shorthanded defense steps up
The Bruins were already without Hampus Lindholm for at least the rest of this road trip. Then they were also without Matt Grzelcyk on Thursday after he suffered a lower-body injury on Wednesday. He’s considered day-to-day, while Lindholm is week-to-week.
Mason Lohrei, just called back up from Providence this week, and Parker Wotherspoon have had to move into top-four roles, while Kevin Shattenkirk re-entered the lineup on the third pairing.
It looked like the ragtag defense was going to be under siege all night based on how the game started, with the Flames landing 16 shots on goal in the first period and spending much of the first 20 minutes in the Boston zone.
But then the defense and the forwards in front of them settled in and started playing much better from the second period on, limiting the Flames to just 11 shots on goal over the final 40 minutes of regulation.
Lohrei and Wotherspoon both topped 20 minutes for a second straight night, and Lohrei in particular played very well once again. He started several rush chances with clean breakout passes and was active in the offensive zone. He nearly won the game in overtime with a shot that just glanced off Markstrom’s shoulder before hitting the crossbar.
Asked on NESN after the game what his message was for Lohrei and Wotherspoon, Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said, “To make the game simple for themselves, move the puck to their first outlet, and just be ready to compete. I think Lohrei and Wotherspoon are doing a great job of that.”
It does have to be noted that Wotherspoon was on the ice for the Flames’ first two goals, and he definitely could’ve done better on the second, when he couldn’t take away a passing lane in front. But the bigger problem on both was the Bruins’ forwards missing assignments on the backcheck, with Richard and Morgan Geekie on for both goals as well. Linus Ullmark was also a bit leaky in net.
On the third pair, Shattenkirk and Derek Forbort had both struggled recently and had come under plenty of criticism as a result. So, in the sake of fairness, it must be said that they played a rock-solid game on Thursday. In the 5:52 that they were on the ice together at 5-on-5, the Bruins out-attempted the Flames 5-0 and outshot them 3-0. Both played clean games, with none of the turnovers that had plagued Forbort in particular recently. On @hockeystatcards’ GameScore ratings, both came away from this one looking pretty good.