After baby-stepping their method again towards their identification with their victory in Winnipeg on Thursday, the Bruins took a large step on Saturday.
Facing a Minnesota Wild staff that had not misplaced in regulation in 14 video games and was some extent out of first place within the Central Division, the B’s had been the higher staff in an entertaining, playoff-favored contest, taking a 5-2 win at Xcel Energy Center.
“it was a good test for us,” Brad Marchand (three assists) instructed NESN. “They’ve been playing really well lately. We haven’t had many games lately where we’ve played our way and played consistently through 60 minutes. I thought we did a really good job of that tonight. We really didn’t have any big letdowns at all through the game and when we had to come up big, we did. And we just kept pushing. That’s what we’ve been doing all year.”
Linus Ullmark, shaking off a uncommon off recreation in Chicago on Tuesday, was again to his commonplace, making 29 saves and bettering his report to 34-5-1.
There had been no passengers within the B’s victory. That mentality permeated each the on- and off-ice personnel. Getting the sport puck had been video coaches, Mat Myers and Sean Andrake, who challenged two Wild objectives for offsides and had been profitable on each.
“It’s not often you let in two extra goals and still come out with the win,” stated Ullmark. “But you’ve got to give credit to Sean and Matty for catching that. It was huge. There were a couple of momentum swings.”
The B’s took a 3-1 lead into the third and gave the impression to be accountable for the sport when Jake DeBrusk took a slashing penalty. Seconds later, Freddie Gaudreau made a pleasant cross from the nook to Oskar Sundqvist and the previous Blue jammed it residence at 7:17 to tug Minnesota to inside a purpose.
But the B’s didn’t flinch — and regained their two-goal lead at 12:22. On one of many B’s many good, grinding O-zone shifts, Marchand took the puck behind the web and fed Patrice Bergeron for his twenty fifth purpose of the 12 months. They by no means regarded again.
Trent Frederic completed it off with an empty-netter with 1:57 left after Charlie Coyle outmuscled Matt Dumba for the puck and kicked it to Frederic for his sixteenth of the season. A single helper didn’t start to inform the story of the monster recreation from Coyle, who gained 7-of-10 attracts and easily couldn’t be knocked off the puck.
“He was just a man-child out there. It looked like it was a grown man playing against Pee Wees at times,” stated coach Jim Montgomery.
The groups traded objectives in a fast-paced first. For the fourth time within the final 5 video games, they allowed the primary purpose when Brandon Carlo received caught deep within the offensive zone and Marcus Johansson gave the Wild a 1-0 lead at 9:45 off a 3-on-1.
It appeared as if the Wild took a 2-0 lead simply seconds after the B’s had killed a penalty when Dumba scored from the slot. But the B’s challenged for offside and the replay confirmed that Connor Dewar was clearly within the zone forward of the puck.
Then late within the interval, the B’s evened it. After certainly one of a number of dominant shifts by the Coyle line, the Bergeron line took over. Bergeron tracked down a unfastened puck on the left half wall and noticed DeBrusk, the final member of the road to alter on. Bergeron hit him in stride and DeBrusk beat goalie Filip Gustavsson with a excessive wrist shot with 1:22 left within the interval, DeBrusk’s twenty first purpose.
In a chippy second interval, the B’s took a lead on David Pastrnak’s first power-play purpose in 22 video games.
Jon Merrill took two consecutive stick fouls, the primary one a retaliatory slash after a tough Garnet Hathaway hit after which a excessive stick on Frederic. The B’s cashed in on the second at 8:43. Pastrnak took a feed from Hampus Lindholm on the left circle and, as a substitute of his patented one-timer, he stepped to the center of the ice and beat Gustavsson with a wrist shot previous the glove.
It appeared as if the B’s handed it proper again to the Wild lower than a minute later when Charlie McAvoy turned the puck over in deep within the Boston finish and Boldy slipped it previous Ullmark. But the B’s challenged for one more offside and this one was quite a bit nearer. Still, it was decided that earlier on the preliminary rush that Boldy put himself offside when he handed simply earlier than blue line.
The B’s then pushed their result in 3-1 at 14:03 off a terrific offensive zone shift from the Czech line. David Krejci ultimately took a feed from Pavel Zacha and snaked his method into the slot. His backdoor cross try for McAvoy went off Johansson’s stick and located the again of the web for his 14th purpose.
White-knuckle time arrived late within the interval when Lindholm (cross-checking) and Dmitry Orlov (delay) headed to the field 37 seconds aside, giving the Wild a prolonged 5-on-3. But Ullmark got here up with a number of massive stops and the B’s survived the two-man-down scenario.
The B’s had been those making an attempt to convey an opponent right down to dimension for a change and, for the second recreation in a row, they performed one other sturdy third interval to salt the sport away.
“I thought we went after them as good as we’ve gone for a 60-minute game,” stated Montgomery. “It was good to try and have a mentality to end someone’s streak. Instead of being hunted, we were hunting.”
And the B’s bagged their prey.
Source: www.bostonherald.com
