The Bruins may have won ugly a few times this season, but they suffered their first loss of the season in spectacular fashion.
On the verge of setting franchise mark for the best start ever in their 100-year history, the B’s gagged up a two-goal lead with less than two minutes left in regulation and then Mason McTavish scored at 2:08 of overtime to lift the Anaheim Ducks to an improbable 4-3 victory on Thursday at the Garden.
The kicker was that the B’s played some of their best hockey of the season in the second and third periods. But when it was winning time, the B’s found a way to lose, failing time after time to clear the puck in empty net situations.
“It was a lack of poise with the puck. We had opportunities, I thought,” said coach Jim Montgomery, whose team fell to 6-0-1. “I thought the game was over twice with the empty net. Guys were whiffing on pucks, guys trying to go for empty nets instead of using the walls on an indirect to clear and get off the ice. That was mostly it. The other thing is we could have extended the lead to 4-1 or 5-1, we had many opportunities to do it. And we didn’t finish the game.”
The B’s appeared to be well on their way sealing their seventh win when Patrick Brown took a holding penalty with 3:59 left in regulation and the Ducks pulled goalie John Gibson for a 6-on-4. The B’s had several chances to clear but failed and with 1:55 left in regulation, highly-touted rookie Leo Carlsson scored a 6-on-5 goal seconds after Brown left the box to cut the Bruin lead to a goal.
All of a sudden, the B’s no longer had control of the game. Their inability to clear the zone continued again and again and Troy Terry tied the game with 14.7 second left in regulation to make it 3-3.
In OT, the B’s barely controlled the puck before McTavish took a feed from Carlsson and buried the winner past Linus Ullmark, who’d given up just one goal in each of his previous three starts.
“Anaheim’s a good team as well so you have to give them credit. Obviously we wanted to close it out, couldn’t do that. That’s something for us to learn from, grow from and take with us in the future,” said Ullmark.
As we’ve come to expect in the first game back after a long, successful road trip, the Bruins were pretty lifeless in the first period. The Ducks, meanwhile, looked like they were putting a wakeup call to good use. In their win in Columbus on Tuesday, Anaheim coach Greg Cronin benched star forward Trevor Zegras and, in the first period at he Garden, the Ducks were battling for every puck.
While the Ducks, who held a 9-6 shot advantage, had the better of the chances in the first, they took the lead at 15:00 of the first on a fortunate bounce. With McTavish battling for position in the crease with Hampus Lindholm behind Ullmark, Radko Gudas threw the puck toward the net and it deflected home off Lindholm.
Montgomery, after a fair amount of debate on the bench, elected to challenge the play for goalie interference but the goal was upheld. The B’s killed off the resulting penalty, their second of the period, and went into the break down a goal.
The B’s shook off the cobwebs in the second period and stormed to a 3-1 lead.
Rookie Matt Poitras, who came into the game with three goals in two games – including two in Anaheim – was predictably earning more attention. He was high-sticked in the first period on a play that wasn’t penalized. Then early in the second period, he was cross-checked by Jackson Lacomb. That one was called, and the B’s made the Ducks pay as their struggling power play got off the schneid.
After changing on for James van Riemsdyk, Charlie Coyle won a faceoff in the right circle and went to the net. He was at the top of the crease to redirect David Pastrnak’s fanned-on slapper attempt into the wide open net behind John Gibson at 1:41 for his first of the season. The teams were officially even on lucky bounces.
As things got chippy, Coyle and Frank Vatrano received matching crosscheck penalties and the B’s took the lead on the ensuing 4-on-4. Poitras made zig-zags along the left side of the offensive zone and got it up to Charlie McAvoy at the blue line. McAvoy fed Matt Grzelcyk in the right circle and his blast squeaked through Gibson’s pads for Grzelcyk’s first of the year at 3:01.
The B’s came close to extending the lead on a penalty kill when Brown fed John Beecher with an empty net but the rookie hit the post.
They did get the third goal with 3:20 left in the second. McAvoy rushed the puck through the neutral zone and, once he gained the blue line, dished it to Pastrnak on the left wing. Pastrnak took a shot that handcuffed Gibson and produced a succulent rebound. Pavel Zacha fouled off his swing but Pastrnak was able to swoop in and deposit his sixth of the year into the empty net.
The B’s contiued to play well early in the third but could not convert any of their chances to end the game, something they would come to rue. And with game on the line, they couldn’t get out of their own way.
“Those are games you want to finish the right way and those are points you’re going to need down the stretch,” said Coyle. “It’s tough to win in this league and you’re never out of it. We’ve got to learn from it. That’s all you can do.”
