Bruins coach Marco Sturm said he felt good after the first period Tuesday night. The fans in TD Garden may not have agreed.
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Boston found itself trailing the New York Islanders 2-0 after 20 minutes. The Bruins had been outshot 10-4 and had landed just two shots on goal over the final 19 minutes of the period. Coming off a disastrous third period in Ottawa Monday night, it felt like more of the same.
Not to Sturm, though. To him, this felt more like Saturday’s big win over the Avalanche than Monday’s blowout loss to the Senators. He would ultimately be proven right as his team came storming back to win 5-2.
“Was it the start we wanted? No, but I felt good for some reason,” Sturm said. “Because the guys were dialed in, and I could sense that they gave me everything they had in the first period. The other guys were just quicker and faster than us. And the message was, we just saw that script. We just been through it with Colorado. They did the same thing, and we kind of stuck with it in the second period, and that’s exactly what happened.”
Right from the start of the second period, the Bruins looked like a completely different team. Charlie McAvoy, who bounced back with a terrific 24-minute, two-assist performance, drew a penalty 38 seconds in. The Bruins didn’t convert on that power play, but then Mark Kastelic drew another penalty right after it ended.
This time, the Bruins cashed in, with David Pastrnak moving the puck down to Pavel Zacha, who then fed Elias Lindholm for a one-time finish from the slot. It was Lindholm’s fourth power-play goal of the season, which is tied for the league lead.
Three minutes later, the Bruins tied the game. Hampus Lindholm, in his return to the lineup after missing eight of the last nine games with a lower-body injury, walked in from the left point and faked a shot before slapping a perfect pass over to Pastrnak for Pastrnak’s sixth goal of the season.
And then just 59 seconds after that, the Bruins had the lead. The fourth line went to work on the cycle, and eventually McAvoy cut through the left circle before firing a perfect pass across the front off Mikey Eyssimont’s stick and in.
McAvoy would add his second assist on the Bruins’ second power-play goal of the night in the third period, setting up Morgan Geekie for a rocket one-timer that registered as the hardest shot on any goal in the NHL this season (95.68 mph). Joonas Korpisalo made sure the lead held with 33 saves on 35 shots. Fraser Minten capped off the scoring with an empty-netter.
It would be an exaggeration to declare that eight-minute stretch in the second period saved the Bruins’ season or anything like that. But in the moment, given that Boston had lost seven of eight and had been completely embarrassed on Monday, it certainly felt like a pretty massive momentum swing.
According to Pastrnak, the Bruins just brought a positive mindset into that critical first intermission.
“It's been positive,” he said. “We told each other it's there if we want to take it this game … Everybody could feel it in the room. Mindset can do magical things, and we had a great mindset today the whole game, and stayed patient, and eventually we got rewarded.”
The Bruins will try to carry that great mindset into their final game of October on Thursday, when they host the Buffalo Sabres.