The Bruins may not be a great hockey team. We still don’t know if they’re even very good at all. But they can be an entertaining, if unconventional, watch right now.
The B’s, outshot 40-23 and held in the game by Joonas Korpisalo, coughed up a two-goal third period lead but pulled it out in overtime, beating the Buffalo Sabres 4-3 on Marat Khusnutdinov’s OT goal, his first tally of the season.
Coach Marco Sturm was rewarded for the confidence he had shown in both key players in the win. He gave Korpisalo his second consecutive start, the first time that’s happened for the netminder as a Bruin, and the coach stuck with Khusnutidinov on his first line.
“Korpi, again, he earned the start, that’s why we went back to him and he showed it again today. Very good,” said Sturm, not yet ready to name his starter for Saturday. “And Khus, yeah, since he’s been back he’s been really good. With Elias (Lindholm) out, I put him back in the middle and he as excellent. He’s very fun to watch right now and that’s why I didn’t hesitate to put him out on the 3-on-3.”
The bad news of the night — potentially very bad — was the loss of the first line centerman Lindholm, who collided knee-on-knee with with Jordan Greenway in the second period. He was in obvious pain and needed help off the ice and down the tunnel.
“We have to reassess (Friday),” said Sturm. “I didn’t see the replay yet, but any time you have to help him off the ice, it’s usually not a good sign.”
The B’s led for most of the game but were hanging on for dear life in the third period until the lead finally slipped away.
After Josh Doan cut a 3-1 Bruin lead in half with a goal earlier in the period, the Sabres tied it with a controversial goal with 5:35 left in the third. Off a faceoff, Alex Tuch beat Korpisalo with a wrist shot from the slot. The B’s challenged for goalie interference after Doan had pushed Henri Jokiharju into Korpisalo, but it was ruled there was enough to take the goal off the board.
The failed challenge put the Sabres on the power play but the B’s were able to kill it off.
“Things happen really fast. We have to 20 to 30 seconds. All of us are involved and I trust the whole group,” said Sturm. “We thought it was the right call to do. I just looked at it again and I’d do again.”
With 1:17 left in regulation, Jordan Greenway tripped Viktor Arvidsson but the B’s could not cash in, either on the 5-on-4 in regulation or on the 43-second 4-on-3 in OT.
But when the teams went to three aside, the B’s broke out on a 3-on-1 thanks to a great defensive play by Fraser Minten. On the break Khusnutdinov kept it for himself, whistling a wrist shot past Alex Lyon from the right circle at 2:07 of OT.
The young Russian seemed as happy to get rid of the goose egg next to his name as he was to win the game.
“Great for the team, great for me,” said the beaming Khusnutdinov. “I think next game there’ll be no pressure. I needed to score the first goal of the season and it makes it a little bit easier for me.”
After his stellar 33-save performance against the Islanders, it’s a good thing Korpisalo was on his game early. The Bruins continued their trend of making every team look like 1977 Montreal Canadiens in the first 10 minutes of the game. Korpisalo came up with several good saves, and none better than the one Doan, who found himself all alone in the slot with the puck courtesy of a fortuitous bounce but could not beat the B’s netminder.
The Sabres didn’t do themselves any favors, either. At one point, they had a 4-on-1 but did not get a shot on net.
The B’s, meanwhile, did not have a shot on net through the first 9:42, but they managed to come out of the opening frame with a 2-0 lead.
They got the first two power plays of the game and, after not getting a shot on net on the first one, the white hot Morgan Geekie got the B’s on the board. After Pavel Zacha muscled the puck over to him on the left wing, David Pastrnak hit Geekie with a great cross-slot pass and Geekie roofed a wrister over Alex Lyon at 13:07. He stretched his goal streak to six straight games with his ninth of the year.
Exactly two minutes later, Pastrnak doubled the lead. Ryan McLeod looked like he had some time and space to make a play high in the Bruins’ zone but Pastrnak got his stick on his shot and headed the other way on a 2-on-1 with Elias Lindholm. From his off wing, Pastrnak slipped his seventh of the year between Lyon’s pads.
After the B’s killed off a late penalty, the Sabres went into the break with a 13-5 shot advantage but nothing tangible to show for it.
After some line-juggling with the loss of Elias Lindholm at 7:20 of the period, the B’s had a chance to put the hammer down when they got another power play but they coughed it up late when Zacha took a hooking penalty.
On the advantage, the Sabres finally beat Korpisalo at 16:01 when a Rasmus Dahlin point shot got through a crowd to the back of the net.
But for the second time in four games, the B’s scored in the final seconds of the second period to give themselves a two-goal lead going into the third. Sean Kuraly took a shot from the right wing that Lyon stopped but could not control. Tanner Jeannot took another whack at the rebound and got it through Lyon. With the puck sitting in the crease, Lyon could not locate it before Mark Kastelic jammed it home with 20.6 seconds left.
Tempers flared after that, with Nikita Zadorov and Jeannot jawing with Greenway. It took a few minutes for the officials regain order, as Zadorov and Bowen Byram yapped at each other on the benches.
As the seconds were ticking off, Zacha took an ill-advised crosschecking penalty on Josh Dunne, giving the Sabres a full two-minute power play to start the third.
The B’s were able to kill that one off but the Sabres controlled much of the play until they inched back to within a goal at 7:00 of the third. Korpisalo stopped an Alex Tuch shot from the right wing but the rebound popped high in the air and into the slot. Doan gloved it down and was able to tuck it around Korpisalo’s pad to make it 3-2.
Tuch then tied it up to sent it to extra time, but the B’s prevailed in OT for the second time in as many tries this season.
It is the first time they’ve won two in row since they won the first three games of the season. But asked if he felt like his team was turning a corner, Sturm — perhaps with the knowledge that the 7-3 Carolina Hurricanes will be here on Saturday — would not go that far.
“Turn the corner…I don’t like that,” said Sturm. “We’ve got to realize who we are first of all. We are not like an elite, elite, elite team. I think right now, we’re in a good spot. Can we be better? Yes. So we have to be really careful with that. For me as a coach, I want to see the way I want them to play and I think we’re heading in the right direction.”
