The Bruins notched their 61st victory of the season. They can only hope it wasn’t a costly one.
An under-the-weather David Pastrnak, who committed a bad turnover earlier in the game, blasted a one-timer past Ilya Samsonov at 2:30 of overtime to lift the B’s to a 2-1 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Garden. It was Pastrnak’s 57th of the year, coming off a nice feed from Dmitry Orlov on a 4-on-4 just after a Leaf penalty was up.
Jeremy Swayman, meanwhile, had another terrific game, stopping 32 of 33 shots.
But the B’s had to be holding their collective breath after Charlie McAvoy left the game in the second period when he crashed hard into the boards and did not return. It was announced he had an upper body injury.
After the game, coach Jim Montgomery said the words that breath-holding Bruin Nation was longing to hear, that McAvoy was held out for “precautionary” reasons and “we don’t think it’s anything serious.”
But Montgomery said he is also inclined to hold him out of the two weekend games against New Jersey and at Philadelphia, as well as David Krejci, who missed his second straight game with a lower body injury.
“Krech has just got some real soreness right now and we just want to make sure everyone’s feeling really good. When you have some soft tissue and some stuff, you don’ want it to get to the point where it’s chronic,” said Montgomery.
The come-from-behind win, meanwhile, puts the B’s one victory shy of tying the record for most wins in a season, held by the 1995-96 Red Wings and the 2018-19 Lightning.
Asked if Pastrnak had been itching to atone for his turnover that led to the Leafs’ only goal in the second period, Montgomery revealed that the sniper had been ill most of the day.
“I can’t give him enough credit for how he willed himself to help us tonight. He was not at his 100 percent level. He was battling a stomach virus and I give him full credit for helping us win this hockey game,” said Montgomery.
There was a bit of intrigue shortly before the winner. Pavel Zacha had been called for a hand pass off a faceoff, which calls for a two-minute penalty. But the officials got together and correctly rescinded the call as Zacha did not touch the puck with his hand. It not only kept the B’s on the PP, but also prevented a Leaf PP at the other end of it. They would not score on the PP (0-for-4 on the night) but they never lost control of the puck after it went to even strength.
“I thought it was great,” said Montgomery of the officials’ decision to talk it over. “This is a hard game to officiate with the speed of the game now. I thought they did a great job of huddling and making sure they got it right.”
Pastrnak said there was no doubt that he would play.
“You have leaders like (Patrice Bergeron) and you learn from them, so there’s not many things that will stop (him from playing),” said Pastrnak. “The group is amazing. I felt like I could still help. But the guys did an amazing job and motivated me, too, so it was fun.”
The Bruins trailed 1-0 in the third period but, just after their third failed power play, they tied it at 11:32. Brandon Carlo used all six feet and six inches of his frame to make a vertical leaping keep-in at the right point and got it down to Charlie Coyle, who also picked up the secondary helper on the GWG. The big centerman drifted over to the left circle snapped a shot that beat Ilya Samsonov to knot the game.
“(Carlo’s) got a pretty good vert, that guy,” said Coyle, who was been shooting the puck more lately. “It’s something I keep telling myself to do because I’m a pass-first natured guy. I’ve been told my whole life, ‘Shoot the puck!’ So it’s nothing new. I stay on myself, like people stay on me.”
Things got testy at the 14:33 mark of a scoreless first period when Sam Lafferty hit an off-balance Matt Gzelcyk and knocked the Bruin into the boards hard and awkwardly. Though the hit wasn’t egregious, the result looked bad and A.J. Greer felt compelled to exact some revenge, immediately throwing off his gloves and landing a couple of shots on Lafferty. Greer wound up getting two for an instigator, five for fighting and the 10-minute misconduct.
Both Swayman and Samsonov kept the game scoreless through the first half of the second period but a Bruin mistake led to the first goal of the game.
Pastrnak’s diagonal breakout pass was picked off by Lafferty just outside the Boston blue line and he counter-attacked. He dumped it into the opposite corner and the puck rimmed back out high to Zac Aston-Reese on the left wing. Lafferty headed to the net to receive Aston-Resse’s perfect return pass at the right post for the goal at 11:34.Swayman had no chance on it.
But the self-inflicted goal against wasn’t the biggest reason for concern. On a Toronto rush that produced a good chance for Nylander that Swayman stuffed, Bergeron crashed into McAvoy on the backcheck and McAvoy in turn slammed into the end boards. He was slow to get up and left the game.
But the B’s dealt with that loss, got the equalizer in the third and ultimately prevailed in OT to pull within one of the record. That is giving them juice to compete in these otherwise meaningless games down the stretch.
Said Pastrnak: “We definitely know about (the record) because we’re looking for anything that will prepare us for the playoffs.”
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April 07, 2023 at 10:11AM
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Bruins keep winning, defeating Toronto in OT, but lose Charlie McAvoy to injury - Boston Herald
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