The good news: The Bruins' offense came roaring to life Saturday against one of the top goalies in the NHL this season and Boston held on for a 5-3 win over the Arizona Coyotes.
The bad news: The Bruins lost Pavel Zacha to an injury. Boston's top center in terms of average ice time left the game at the end of the first period with an upper-body injury and did not return.
Let's start with the good. After another slow start, the Bruins shook off the matinee cobwebs and turned up the pressure on the Coyotes as the first period went on.
David Pastrnak opened the scoring at the 15:22 mark when he stole the puck from Juuso Valimaki in deep, popped out to the left side of the net, and roofed a shot past Ingram, who entered Saturday ranked fourth in the NHL with a .925 save percentage.
Just 48 seconds later, the Bruins' second line of James van Riemsdyk, Charlie Coyle and Trent Frederic made it 2-0. Van Riemsdyk's forecheck pressure helped force an errant breakout pass, which Frederic intercepted before zipping a pass across the top of the crease for Coyle to tap in.
Kevin Shattenkirk made it 3-0 with a power-play goal early in the second, burying a seam pass from Pastrnak into a wide-open net. It was the second goal in four games for Shattenkirk, who was filling in on the top power-play unit with Charlie McAvoy missing the game due to an upper-body injury suffered on Thursday. McAvoy is considered day-to-day.
Just as it looked like the Bruins may have been slamming the door shut early, the Coyotes responded with two goals in 32 seconds to cut the lead to 3-2. Matt Poitras, who committed a costly turnover on Arizona's second goal, avenged his mistake and helped push the lead back to two when he won a battle in the neutral zone that sent in Danton Heinen, who snapped a shot past Ingram for his fourth goal of the season.
The Coyotes again cut the lead to one early in the third and had the Bruins under a lot of pressure, but Linus Ullmark – who was making consecutive starts for the first time this season – stood tall. Pastrnak essentially ended the comeback bid with his second goal of the game at the 14:29 mark of the third, finishing off a rebound after a great individual effort by Morgan Geekie to win a battle and get the puck to the net.
It wasn't always pretty, but after a meek 3-1 loss to Buffalo on Thursday, the offensive explosion was a welcome sight, and so was the effort to overcome the absence of McAvoy and the in-game loss of Zacha.
"I loved the effort," Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said. "I thought our second and third effort was really good. I thought we had some great blocks. Obviously, Linus was fantastic, and he needed to be. We gave up too much. And Pasta was fantastic."
As for Zacha, Montgomery didn't have any update after the game and said he would know more on Monday. The Bruins are off on Sunday. A rewatch of Zacha's final two shifts did not reveal any obvious play the injury may have occurred on.
It took a collective effort to overcome his loss. In addition to scoring a goal, Coyle played a season-high 20:17 and won 17 of his 22 faceoffs. Geekie shifted from wing to center, played 17:31 (his second-highest mark of the season), won eight of 12 faceoffs, and picked up the assist on Pastrnak's second goal. Johnny Beecher won seven of 11 faceoffs and tied for the team lead with four hits. Frederic took some shifts at center as well, played 15:13 (his second-highest total), recorded two assists, and also dished out four hits.
Interestingly enough, that collective effort did not include Poitras in the third period. Montgomery benched the rookie center for the final 20 minutes, as he has a few times now in games where the Bruins are protecting a lead.
"Valuing game management is something that we've talked to him about," Montgomery said when asked about the decision to not use Poitras in the third. "It's still lacking in his game right now. We are paid to win hockey games, and I'm gonna go with the guys that I think are gonna win us hockey games."
The Bruins did win Saturday, so Montgomery's decision can be justified. If Zacha misses any time, though, the Bruins may need Poitras to play a bigger role, whether Montgomery fully trusts him or not. Geekie would presumably remain at center in that scenario, too. The Bruins' next game is Wednesday in New Jersey.
