Strong special teams have been a major components in the Bruins’ surprisingly competitive season. On Sunday, we saw what can happen when they don’t win that part of the game.
In the final game of their three-game road trip, the B’s four-game win streak ended with a thud in a 6-2 loss to the Wild in Minnesota.
When the game was still competitive, the B’s could not capitalize on their two power-play opportunities while the Wild cashed in on both their man advantages and that, along with timely saves from Filip Gustavsson (29 saves), was the difference before the game got away from them.
Considering they had taken four of a possible six points on the road trip, the B’s sounded as if they were already in the process of flushing this one in speaking to reporters in Minnesota after the game.
“I think we lost the special teams battle early and then you’re chasing the game,” said Alex Steeves, who scored his seventh of the season when the game was out of reach. “We didn’t quit or anything like that but, once we went down and lost those special teams battles, you’re just backchecking from there. Again, I think we had a good road trip. We wanted this one but we’ll take two of three. There’s definitely things we can clean up but I don’t think it’s something we can hang our heads about. I think we had a good road trip. We have a five-game homestand in Boston to get excited about before the break. I think we’ll bring our best on Tuesday (against Utah).”
In a measuring stick game, the B’s did not measure up on this night.
Both teams got one power play apiece in the first period, but only the Wild took advantage of theirs. While all the pregame buzz had to do with the arrival of Quinn Hughes after Minnesota’s huge trade with Vancouver on Friday night, it was another small, crafty defenseman who put the Wild on the board at 10:11.
With Nikita Zadorov in the box for an interference call he didn’t like, Wild captain Jared Spurgeon used a screen in front of Jeremy Swayman to snap a shot from high in the circle and beat the netminder.
Swayman and his counterpart, Gustavsson, came up with big saves in the first as the B’s had a 7-6 shot advantage in the opening 20 minutes.
What was more concerning than the one-goal deficit for the B’s was the fact that their leading goal scorer, Morgan Geekie, left the game with about five minutes remaining in the first after blocking a shot. Geekie did not come out at the start of the second, but he reappeared when the B’s got a second power play early in the period.
They could not convert that one, either, as Gustavsson came up with a big save on a good Pavel Zacha chance from the slot.
But the B’s kept getting chances. Elias Lindholm had a partial break off the left and his shot seem to handcuff Gustavsson. But neither Lindholm nor Steeves could get enough of their blade on the loose puck to knock it home before it was cleared.
The puck luck was on Minnesota’s side and at 8:49, the Wild took a 2-0 lead, thanks to a fortunate bounce and tremendous skill. Matt Boldy’s centering pass attempt from high on the right wing was deflected off a Bruin and went to the end boards. It ricocheted to give Kirill Kaprizov a room-service bounce and he just flicked a backhander over Swayman for the two-goal lead.
When Mikey Eyssimont, who drew back into the lineup with the injury to Viktor Arviddson, took a slashing penalty, the game started to escape from the B’s. Late in the power play, Brock Faber gained the zone with speed, blew past Charlie McAvoy to create a 2-on-0 and dished it Ryan Hartman for a pretty redirection goal.
Both PP goals came in the waning seconds of the advantage.
“I don’t think it’s a concern, but it shows you you have to finish the PK for two minutes. You can’t slow down, even if it’s 20 seconds left. They’re big kills,” coach Marco Sturm told NESN. “We didn’t do a good enough job on our stand on the PK. They came with a lot of speed and we just didn’t execute right.”
Said Sean Kuraly: “It felt like we dictated play on the penalty kill for 85 percent of it and then you find yourself picking it out of your net. It’s super frustrating.”
That three-goal deficit looked insurmountable with the way Gustavsson was playing and the fact that the Wild were ranked fifth in goals against average, allowing just 2.63 a game.
It was.
And 54 seconds into the third, Hughes brought the Minnesota crowd to its feet when he got on the board with his first goal as a member of the Wild, beating Swayman on a wrister that somehow broke through the netminder.
If the B’s had been staggering, that was the knockout punch.
“I think they took it toward our net more than we did to their net. That’s what playoff teams do. That’s something we have to learn,” said Sturm.
Boldy made it a blowout with a seeing-eye goal before Steeves’ goal at 10:58 prevented the B’s from suffering their first shutout loss of the season. Kaprizov’s added his second of the night to finish off Minnesota’s scoring, but that game was over before then. Finally, Andrew Peeke scored in the final second of the game, ending the night of hard lessons learned.
