The Edmonton Oilers could boast the very best participant within the recreation at this time, however the Bruins have been the NHL’s finest staff all season. On Monday, the latter was adequate to beat the previous.
Barely.
Connor McDavid scored a pair of targets to present him 50 for the season, however Pavel Zacha’s late second-period purpose held up as the sport winner in a 3-2 victory at Rogers Place.
“(Depth) has been the difference for most of the year ,” coach Jim Montgomery advised NESN. “We’ve got six, seven D-men who can really play hockey and we’ve got four lines that can play hockey. I really liked out 5-on-5 game tonight.”
It was the depth that was acquired final week from the Washington Capitals that confirmed up on Monday. Dmitry Orlov had a pair of assists whereas Garnet Hathaway had a helper of his personal whereas delivering a success that set the tone on what turned out to be the game-winning shift late within the second interval.
“It was a good team effort by everyone,” stated Orlov. “It was kind of playoff hockey with both teams playing hard and working for each other. It’s nice to get these two points on this road trip. Everyone’s focused. We have one more game (Tuesday in Calgary). We’ll take a rest and get ready for the next one. It’s a tough schedule coming up, so we cannot lose our focus and relax too much.”
The B’s nursed the one-goal lead all third interval whereas doing their finest to sluggish McDavid down. And, with 4:30, Klim Kostin — who had simply had a five-minute main penalty rightfully rescinded when the replay confirmed David Krejci was clipped wiht his personal stick — took a double minor excessive stick on Patrice Bergeron. After the Oilers survived the primary two minutes, Oiler defenseman Vincent Desharnais slashed David Pastrnak to present the B’s a 5-on-3 with 2:26 left in regulation. But even on the 5-on-3, there have been some bushy moments with McDavid blowing the zone to attempt to get the equalizer.
“I was hoping we were going to manage the puck really well and make them chase the puck until they got tired and we got a really good look. But we were very impatient with our puck decisions,” stated Montgomery.
The B’s couldn’t get the insurance coverage purpose however, ultimately, they have been capable of survive for his or her seventh straight win to enhance their file to 46-8-5
McDavid introduced his presence within the recreation simply 2:17 in. The Hart Trophy favourite sneaked behind Charlie McAvoy to simply accept an extended move from Leon Draisaitl (not a nasty Robin to McDavid’s Batman) alongside the left boards and broke in on a partial break. With McAvoy in pursuit, McDavid snapped a pea between the Jeremy Swayman’s pads for his league-leading forty ninth of the season.
But the B’s answered simply 13 seconds later, and the 2 latest Bruins picked up their first factors with the staff.
Olrov, changing Matt Grzelcyk on the highest pair, went in deep alongside the left facet and fed the puck to Hathaway along side the online. Hathaway made a pleasant contact move to Tomas Nosek out entrance and Nosek lifted his fourth of the yr over goalie Stuart Skinner.
McDavid and Draisaitl gave the B’s matches on a few shifts, inflicting turnovers within the Boston zone a number of instances, however they weren’t capable of money in earlier than the B’s took their first lead of the sport.
And it was McDavid who turned the puck over on the Bruin blue line to create a 2-on-1 for Nick Foligno and Charlie Coyle. Orlov blocked McDavid’s move try and poked the puck again up the ice for Foligno, who performed give-and-go with Coyle, taking the return move from Coyle to bury his tenth of the yr at 15:06.
“A great play by (Coyle),” Foligno advised NESN. “Great play first of all by Orlov to poke it back in the neutral zone to give us an odd man rush and then (Coyle) gave me that chance for a mini-breakaway. I saw my spot and went for it.”
The B’s survived a scare within the first interval when Brad Marchand turned his proper ankle after Darnell Nurse’s skate got here up and clipped simply above the boot and he needed to miss a piece of the interval however returned earlier than it was out.
In the second interval, the groups traded targets.
Edmonton was capable of even it up at 12:20 of the second on a cool play. The B’s had a brief 4-on-3 and on the finish of it, Cody Ceci cleared the puck down the ice. As Edmonton acquired again to even power, Kostin chased it down behind the B’s web and he glanced over his shoulder to see that McDavid was altering on to the ice. Kostin circled behind the online with McAvoy on his hip and fed a large open McDavid, who made a rapid deke to beat Swayman for No. 50.
But the B’s regained their one-goal lead within the remaining minute of the interval. The B’s had two terrific shifts contained in the Oiler zone, with the fourth line handing the baton to the Czech line. Eventually, Pastrnak flipped a puck towards the online. Zacha tried to deflect it residence however after the puck simply died on the ice, Zacha spun round Ceci and dove to in some way flick it over Skinner for his 14th of the yr with 30 seconds left within the second.
Despite some white knuckles within the remaining couple of minutes. that held up because the GWG.
Source: www.bostonherald.com