The Bruins’ 4-3 overtime win against the Panthers Saturday afternoon wasn’t pretty. They got outplayed most of the day, and out-attempted by a whopping 109-37 margin. They gave up the game-tying goal with 1.8 seconds left in regulation.
But they won, with David Pastrnak scoring the winning goal with 1.2 seconds left in overtime. And given the situation this Boston team is in, that’s all that really matters at the moment.
The Bruins had lost six in a row coming in. They had lost both of their meetings with rival Florida this season. They had slipped to 12th place in the Eastern Conference in points percentage. Rich Keefe’s report on Friday that there was friction between Pastrnak and Brad Marchand had created a firestorm that both players felt the need to immediately try to extinguish with vehement denials.
The Bruins desperately needed something positive to cling to as they try to get their season on track. They didn’t want to be returning from their moms trip with the franchise’s longest losing streak in 15 years, not with another tough game against Tampa Bay on tap for Tuesday, and not with chants of “Fire Sweeney” ringing out the last time they were at TD Garden.
Whether the Bruins can build on Saturday remains to be seen. There have been other potential turning points this season that have fallen by the wayside. But at least they found a foothold, and they did it with some critical pieces of the puzzle stepping up.
Pastrnak scored twice, including the OT winner. It was his third multi-goal game in the last five games. The first goal was nicer, with Pastrnak burying a great feed from Morgan Geekie. The second was a lucky bounce, with a pass from Pastrnak deflecting off a Florida stick and in. But that was a fitting counter to the lucky bounce the Panthers got on Sam Reinhart’s tying goal, which had popped into the air and fluttered down just behind Jeremy Swayman.
Speaking of Swayman, he had one of his best games of the season. He did give up three goals, but he also made a season-high 39 saves. According to Natural Stat Trick, he saved 2.75 goals above expected, his second-best mark all year. His 10 high-danger saves were tied for his second-most this season. Swayman snapped his personal five-game losing streak with the win.
The Bruins’ power play also stepped up, scoring the game’s first and last goals. Geekie opened the scoring on the man advantage 6:02 into the game, collecting the puck after Mason Lohrei flipped it towards the net and beating Sergei Bobrovsky on the backhand. Pastrnak’s winner also came on the power play after Charlie McAvoy drew a penalty on Sam Bennett in overtime.
It was just the second time this season that the Bruins have scored two power-play goals in a game, with the other coming way back on Oct. 16. Geekie’s goal ended an 0-for-17 power-play drought that stretched over eight games and change. Boston’s three power plays in between the goals still struggled quite a bit, with just one shot on goal among them. But again: Saturday wasn’t about beauty points. The power play, like the team as a whole, just needed to show some life, and it did.
Boston’s third goal of the game came from Oliver Wahlstrom, and it was his first goal and point in 10 games as a Bruin. It was a big one, too. The Panthers had just tied the game at 2-2 early in the third period and were threatening to grab the momentum, but Wahlstrom got the lead right back just 1:23 later. He won a battle down low on the forecheck, then got rewarded when the puck popped out to him at the left doorstep for the goal.
The Bruins would have loved to close things out in regulation, and almost did. They did a pretty good job limiting the Panthers’ chances at 5-on-5 the rest of the way, but once Florida pulled Bobrovsky for the extra attacker, Boston fell victim to too many icings and too many lost faceoffs in the defensive zone (three straight by Pavel Zacha against Aleksander Barkov over the final 1:05).
The pessimist’s take on this win would be that the Panthers were clearly the better team despite the final result, and that the Bruins still shouldn’t feel all that great about their play. The optimist’s view would be that the Bruins just needed a win, period, and that getting it over the team that has been their boogeyman is reason enough to feel good.
We’ll know in the days and weeks to come if the Bruins can use this as a springboard, or if it will go down as just a blip on the radar amid ongoing struggles.