Bruins coach Marco Sturm pushed some of the buttons available to him, and for a while on Sunday it looked like his machinations might work. But in the end, the B’s remained in their funk, dropping a 3-2 decision to the Utah Mammoth at the Delta Center. The B’s went 0-3 on their western road trip and have now lost four straight.
This game was winnable for the B’s.
But with the score tied 2-2 in the third, the Mammoth took the lead with 9:23 left. After a scramble in their own end, it looked like the B’s had control of the puck for the breakout. But JJ Peterka picked Marat Khusnutdinov’s pocket and fed Dylan Guenther for a one-timer that beat Joonas Korpisalo for the 3-2 Utah lead.
The B’s got a chance to even it up when Barrett Hayton tripped David Pastrnak with 5:09 left in regulation but their best scoring opportunity was a Viktor Arvidsson backhander from the mid-slot.
The B’s pulled Korpisalo for the extra skater but they were never able to muster much on Vitek Vanecek.
While he no doubt would like to snap this losing streak, Sturm liked the overall product much better. Shots were even at 26-26.
“Guys battled really hard. We didn’t deserve going home empty tonight, that’s for sure,” Sturm told NESN.
With the B’s game sliding toward a place he didn’t like, Sturm tried to catch his team’s attention Saturday into Sunday. He essentially benched David Pastrnak in the third period of Saturday’s 4-1 loss in Colorado, limiting him to three shifts and none in the final 7:55. Pastrnak responded with the B’s only two goals against Utah.
“He was much better, all of (the best players) were. They were more involved. They knew, too, the last few games weren’t good enough and they responded,” said Sturm.
Pastrnak told reporters in Utah that the game in Denver was a “tough game” and he was “turning the page.” The goals in Utah were cold comfort for him.
“A game like this, I’d rather get a win. It’s nice, but it never feels good when you lose,” he said.
Also on Sunday, Sturm scratched second line center Casey Mittelstadt, moving Pavel Zacha to center and re-inserting Khusnutdinov back into the lineup and onto the second line.
“Casey was OK. Do we need more from him? Yes. But there’s a lot of other guys, too, trust me,” Sturm told reporters in Utah before the game, adding he wanted Khusnutdinov’s speed in the lineup against the Mammoth.
The game wasn’t four minutes old when Mark Kastelic decided to join the battle, throwing down with the Mammoth’s Liam O’Brien at 3:18, landing some heavy rights before falling on top of O’Brien.
But instead of the B’s getting any juice from their first fight of the year, Elias Lindholm was called for hooking 12 seconds later, the first of five power plays the B’s gave the Mammoth.
On the power play, Nick Schmaltz’ flip shot from the slot appeared to be heading over the net until it hit Logan Cooley between the 9 and 2 on his back and dropped in behind Korpisalo for the 1-0 Utah lead.
Both teams got two power plays in the first period and the B’s tied it up at 14:38 on their second one. With Zacha planted in the slot, Charlie McAvoy sent a pass down low to him and Zacha made a nifty touch pass to Pastrnak at the side of the net. Pastrnak managed to just slip it between the near post and Vanecek for his third goal of the year.
And it was Pastrnak who gave the B’s their first lead of the game at 5:46 of the second period. In the midst of a line change, the puck came out to Pastrnak in the neutral zone and he had a 2-on-1 with Khusnutdinov. Khusnutdinov took a pass from Pastrnak but wasted no time in sending it right back to Pastrnak, who beat Vanecek between the pads. That was Pastrnak’s 395th goal to tie him with Ray Bourque for sixth place in team history.
The B’s got in some penalty trouble after that, taking the next two, but they were up to the challenge. They nearly had a pad goal on a shorthanded bid by Fraser Minten, who created a turnover at the Boston blue line. His initial shot was stopped and then Vanecek had to make a very good stop on Tanner Jeannot on his follow-up.
Things got testy with the Mammoth jamming away at Korpisalo after the whistle and Nikita Zadorov took issue with it, tussling with Brandon Tanev.
That set up a 4-on-4 and, with four seconds left in the situation, Utah tied it up with 4:03 left in the second period. Henri Jokiharju was picked by Utah defenseman Ian Cole out high, the Mammoth got a quick 2-on-1 with Schmaltz feeding Clayton Keller for the equalizer.
Sturm felt he had his team where he wanted it to be.
“We felt pretty good, I’ve got to say,” said Sturm. “We wanted to play them 5-on-5. That’s it, because they knew when we play them 5-on-5, we had a pretty good chance to win the hockey game. But again, it’s a tough league. A little mistake ends up in the back of our net.”
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