When the Bruins are bad, they look like they couldn’t break out of their own zone against a high school team.
But against all reasonable predictions for this confounding squad, the B’s are a team that has been able to score in bunches, especially when a little urgency is infused into their game.
Both personalities were on full display on Tuesday, when the B’s stormed back from 2-0 deficit with five unanswered goals to beat the New York Islanders, 5-2, at the Garden. It snapped a 4-0-1 run for the Islanders and erased an embarrassing 7-2 loss to the Senators for the B’s on Monday.
Coach Marco Sturm attributed at least part of the poor start to the fact that the B’s played on Monday and the Isles were here waiting for them. But after his team was embarrassed in Ottawa, Sturm had a good feeling about is players.
“I was looking forward to today because I knew these guys would respond. I knew it,” said Sturm. “I think we were all disappointed (on Monday), not just me but the players, too. I could tell already before the game. We had a bunch of meetings and I could tell these guys were ready to go. Even after we were down 2-0, the energy was still the same. That was a good sign.”
One component that is mandatory for this team is good goaltending, and they got that. Joonas Korpisalo (33 saves) was excellent, especially in the third period (15 saves). The B’s also won the special teams game. Though they were scored on a delayed penalty, they killed the four other penalties, including a double minor when they were protecting a one-goal lead.
All wins are good wins for this team, but this one felt almost imperative after the way their trip to Ottawa had gone. The resilience that disappeared north of the border was back.
“It was not the start we were looking for,” said David Pastrnak, who had a goal and an assist. “But you could feel the energy in the room after the first that we know we can still win this game…the positivity after first period was great. Not a surprise we came up with the win because our mindset and focus was there today.”
The start to the night was not promising for the locals.
For the first shift and a half, it did in fact look like the Bruins were ready to play on their toes. They caused numerous turnovers in the Islanders zone and seemed ready to capitalize. But Hampus Lindholm, activated off injured reserve a few hours earlier, missed the net from the slot and, all of a sudden, the Islanders had a dangerous breakout served right to them.
Once in the Bruins’ zone, Jonathan Drouin dropped a pass for Bo Horvat and Horvat, after beating Morgan Geekie up the ice, beat Korpisalo to the far side just 1:08 into the game.
It got worse before it got better.
In he first month of the season, Nikita Zadorov had done a good job of staying out the box. But he took a costly penalty in the debacle in Ottawa on Monday and then he took another one early on Tuesday. After Sean Kuraly turned the puck over on a breakout and the Isles counterattacked, Zadorov tripped Matthew Barzal. On the delayed call, the Islanders razzled-dazzled the B’s until Barzal zipped a long-distance pass through the slot to Kyle Palmieri for an easy backdoor goal at 4:52.
Immediately, the B’s were chasing the game. They were able to stop the bleeding to get to the first intermission down by just two (they had to kill off another Zadorov boarding penalty on Adam Pelech on a dangerous play), but they had not generated much since the first minute of the game. Sturm tried to shake up his lines a bit, moving Marat Khusnutdinov up to the first line and dropping Geekie down to the third line with Tanner Jeannot and Fraser Minten but nothing was happening at first. But he stuck with the combos and it would produce a goal.
The Isles held a 10-4 shot advantage in the first and the B’s heard the boos as they headed to the room for the first break.
Then, with a little help from the Islanders, the B’s woke up in the second period, scoring three times in the first 7:48 of the period.
The visitors gave the B’s some life at the start of the second, giving them two power plays in the first four minutes. The B’s could not capitalize on the first power play, but they were able to cut the deficit to a goal on the second one.
After Marshall Warren went to the box for hauling down Mark Kastelic, the B’s were able to set up in the New York zone. From down low, Pavel Zacha sent a pass out to the best of the circle for an Elias Lindholm one-timer at 3:57, his fourth of the season, all on the power play.
The B’s evened it up at 6:49. Hampus Lindholm found Pastrnak for what looked like a back door shot. Pastrnak double-clutched, faking the slapper, and appeared to have missed his shot. But he fooled Ilya Sorokin with a soft, five-hole shot, his sixth of the season.
Then 59 seconds later, the B’s took the lead. Charlie McAvoy took the puck down low on the right side and sent a perfect pass into the crease for Mike Eyssimont, who fought off Jean-Gabriel Pageau’s check and tapped it in for his third.
With the Garden crowd buzzing, Islander coach Patrick Roy called his timeout to settle his players down.
At one point, the B’s were outshooting the Isles 11-1 in the period, but the New Yorkers eventually pushed back. Korpisalo came up with a two huge saves on a Horvat breakaway and his follow-up, but that gave the Isles momentum. After an elongated shift inside their own zone, Hampus Lindholm took a double-minor for high-sticking on Kyle Palmieri with 2:51 left in the period.
The B’s killed the first minor off but still had 1:09 to kill to start the third.
They killed that off, and then a bad Pastrnak O-zone hooking penalty, before they got a power play of their own. And they cashed in.
After Zadorov was slashed heading to the net, Geekie scored his sixth goal in five games and eighth of the season, pounding a McAvoy feed past Sorokin for a two-goal lead at 5:48. It was a rocket.
“He has everything to score 50 in this league,” said Pastrnak of Geekie. “I keep telling him, reminding him he has a heck of a shot and he has goalscorer’s instincts. He’s going to get it one day. The shot that he has is amazing. It’s the best on our team. We just need to get him the opportunities and remind him to shoot more.”
Korpisalo made that two-goal lead stand up until Minten scored an empty netter with 3:23 left. That took all the life out of the Islanders.
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