If you were looking for a game to circle when the Bruins might end their losing streak, Saturday afternoon against the Avalanche would not have been it. Colorado entered the day as one of two teams that had yet to lose in regulation this season. Boston had lost six straight in regulation, including a 4-1 thumping against this same Avs team one week ago.
Funny how hockey works sometimes. The Bruins did the improbable Saturday, winning 3-2 to end their losing streak and hand Colorado its first regulation loss.
How the Bruins won was a bit improbable, too, because they did it at 5-on-5. The Avalanche were tied for the best 5-on-5 goal differential in the league entering Saturday at plus-9. The Bruins were fourth-worst at minus-7. Playing this game straight-up would not have seemed to favor Boston in any way. And yet, the Bruins scored all three of their goals at 5-on-5 – from three different lines – while the Avs scored just one (their second goal came with 20 seconds left and the extra attacker on).
With their backs up against the wall, the Bruins actually didn’t get off to the start they would have hoped for. They looked jumpy early on, committing several defensive-zone turnovers in the opening minutes and falling behind 1-0 just 4:26 in when a miscommunication between Charlie McAvoy and Nikita Zadorov left goal-scorer Artturi Lehkonen alone in front. It took more than seven minutes for the Bruins to get their first shot on goal.
It looked like they might be lucky to get to the first intermission down by just one. Instead, they actually ended up with a 2-1 lead at the break thanks to a late momentum swing.
It started with Boston’s second line, a group that has had an up-and-down start to the season and is trying to show it’s worth keeping together. Pavel Zacha just missed springing Casey Mittelstadt on a breakaway, but Mittelstadt won the race to the puck deep in the offensive zone and moved it back to Mason Lohrei at the point. Lohrei then found Viktor Arvidsson in front, where Arvidsson had his first chance stuffed before getting the puck back and banking it in off Colorado goalie Scott Wedgewood for his first goal as a Bruin.
“The goal obviously helps,” Bruins coach Marco Sturm said of his team settling into the game. “…At that point, I would say it was a fragile group a little bit. We're nervous playing against a good team, and also lost six in a row. So, it’s hard. Guys tried, but they’re all humans. And yeah, we probably needed a goal like that just to loosen up a little bit.”
Just 39 seconds later, the third line gave the Bruins the lead. After Avs defenseman Sam Malinski misread a breakout pass from Lohrei, Tanner Jeannot took off on a 2-on-1 before making a nice pass over to Mikey Eyssimont for the finish.
The Bruins held that lead through the second period, a dramatic improvement over recent games that have seen them consistently give up goals right after scoring – especially since they were facing one of the most dangerous offenses in the league. And then they got some breathing room on a great hustle play by Morgan Geekie in the final seconds of the period.
David Pastrnak chipped the puck into the offensive zone, Geekie beat out an icing, and then faked out Wedgewood before tucking the puck inside the post with 4.5 seconds on the clock for his sixth goal of the season, which puts him one off the league lead.
“I thought that was the biggest goal today,” Sturm said. “…Going into that [third] period with a two-goal lead, I think that was huge for us.”
Still, the Bruins had work to do in the third. A two-goal deficit is far from insurmountable when the likes of Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar and Martin Necas are on the other side.
They did the work and protected the lead. They played solid team defense. They got pucks out of the zone. They defended the front of the net, including after the whistle on a couple occasions when Avalanche players took an extra whack at the pads of Jeremy Swayman.
Speaking of Swayman… he was excellent Saturday, and a deserving No. 1 star as he ended his personal three-game losing streak. Swayman stopped 31 of the 33 shots he faced, and only surrendered that second goal with 20 seconds left in the game. According to Moneypuck, he saved 1.41 goals above expected. Barring other results later Saturday, that should vault him into the top 10 in goals saved above expected for the season – a better reflection of the way he has played so far than team-oriented stats like win-loss record and goals-against average.
“When you play a team like that, you need strong special teams and you need a goalie who can stop the puck, maybe steal the game, and he was excellent,” Sturm said of Swayman.
Saturday wasn’t a perfect performance by any means. The Bruins did get significantly outshot and out-chanced when it was all said and done. They went 0-for-4 on the power play. The start wasn’t very good.
But the Bruins aren’t worried about beauty points right now. They desperately needed actual points, and on Saturday they got two against one of the best teams in the league. They’ll look to build on it Monday night in Ottawa when they face a Senators team that has gotten off to their own rough start.