The Bruins have not had a ton of practice playing with the lead lately. That has showed.
After the B’s white-knuckled their way to a 7-5 win over Pittsburgh Saturday, they were not so lucky against Philadelphia on Monday, spitting up a one-goal third period lead and then losing to what’s looking like an improved Flyers team, 3-2, in overtime. It was the Flyers’ first win over the B’s in six tries this year.
The extra point allowed the Flyers to inch to within three points of the B’s in the East Division with a rematch set for Tuesday night in Philly. The B’s have two games in hand.
In OT, Travis Sanheim blocked a Patrice Bergeron shot in the Philly zone and, after Bergeron fell down while skating backwards on defense, Sanheim moved in all alone and beat Daniel Vladar with a wrister over the goalie’s blocker with 1:52 left.
“We did some good things. We took a lead into the third and we took a bad penalty,” said coach Bruce Cassidy of an infraction taken by the struggling Jeremy Lauzon. “Same guy, similar type penalties. He has to do a better job on those one-on-one. We have to do a better job of identifying what you can get away with. That’s been an issue. It hurt us. It was the only chance we gave up in the third period. It found the back of the net through a screen. Unfortunately in overtime, we had a couple of pucks on our sticks and we weren’t able to get to the net.”
With the B’s nursing a 2-1 lead since early in the second period, Lauzon took a defensive zone holding penalty on Michael Raffl at 5:21 of the third. And with the way Lauzon’s luck has been going lately, the Flyers of course evened it on the power play. Sean Couturier beat Vladar over the glove from the top of the left circle to make it 2-2 at 6:56.
Lauzon was playing in his fourth game back from breaking his hand on Feb. 21 in Lake Tahoe (he missed Saturday’s game because of a cut he suffered in the previous game) and his game is not close to where it was when he suffered the injury when he was playing with Charlie McAvoy on the top pairing.
Lauzon has shown he’s capable of playing better. Whether the B’s have enough time for him to get his game up to speed is another question, but Cassidy wants to give him the chance to get going.
“He has to play through it. If not, we’ll have to make a determination of putting the next guy in,” said Cassidy. “We had a plan in place early on and he was doing a good job. Obviously anyone playing with Charlie is going to look more effective. So that’s something else we have to look at. We’re going on the road. Kevan Miller (out since Feb. 18) is a possibility, so that helps solidify a pair. That’s a part of it, too, being down a few guys with (Brandon) Carlo and Miller being out. They’re guys who can solidify pairs, but they’re not in the lineup. Guys have to play through it and find ways. That’s it. I don’t know how else to say it. Yes, he’s in the lineup. When you’re in, play through your mistakes and get better from them, move on. Hopefully that will be the case (Tuesday).”
For the sixth consecutive contest, the B’s allowed the game’s first goal. At 10:15 of the first, the Flyers nicked Vladar, who made 29 saves, several of which were spectacular. Vladar made a save on the original deflected shot by Ivan Provorov but he then swept the rebound to his left, where Travis Konecny was able to pop it home.
That got the B’s going and they eventually got the equalizer at 17:33 of the first. Cassidy made a bottom six line alteration, flipping right wing Karson Kuhlman and Zach Senyshyn, dropping Senyshyn to the fourth line (he would sit a good portion of the second period) and bumping up Kuhlman to play with Charlie Coyle and DeBrusk. The new third line pounced on a Flyer miscue to even it up.
Jake Voracek fell down at the left half board and lost the puck to Coyle. Coyle connected with the oncoming Kuhlman on the right wing and Kuhlman smoked a wrist shot over goalie Brian Elliott’s glove for his second goal of the season to make 1-1.
In the final minute of the first, Couturier took an unforced icing and, off the ensuing faceoff in the Philly zone, Shayne Gostisbehere was nailed for tripping Brad Marchand. With the leftover power play time to start the second, the B’s made them pay.
Matt Grzelcyk did terrific job of walking the blue line and avoiding a Kevin Hayes stick check before dishing to David Pastrnak on the left side. Pastrnak then made an on-the-tape pass to Bergeron, who redirected it past Elliott from the mid-slot 46 seconds into the period.
The B’s got into some penalty trouble themselves, taking the next two infractions. Spectacular play by Vladar on the first kill helped preserve the lead.
First, he went post-to-post to make a blocker save on Claude Giroux then, seconds later, he robbed Konecny with the glove. That one was close enough to the goal line for the officials to take a second look at it at the next stoppage, but the save was upheld.
“He’s very athletic and never quits on a puck. That’s what everybody loves about him,” said Cassidy.
Vladar would have to make another terrific save later in the period after an unsuccessful Bruin power play. Justin Braun, who’d just come out of the box, got a step on McAvoy and had a partial breakaway. McAvoy badgered him from behind, but Vladar was forced to make a solid stop on Braun.
Unfortunately for Vladar, he and B’s could not close the door on the Flyers.
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April 06, 2021 at 09:03AM
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Bruins lose lead, then game in OT to Flyers, 3-2 - Boston Herald
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