Boston, MA – The Boston Bruins squandered a two-goal lead in the third period to the expansion Seattle Kraken during Kraken’s first visit to TD Garden on Tuesday, February 1, 2022. David Pastrnak‘s second goal of the evening was the difference-maker in Boston, not dropping two points as they head into the All-Star break. Pastrnak’s two-goal night gave him 22 on the season and 14 since January 4.
“I haven’t changed much, to be honest,” said Pastrnak of his scoring streak. “I think it was a little bit of ‘puck luck’ earlier and it didn’t go my way. Today is a great example. Both shots got a little bit deflected and went in. So just getting a little bit lucky.”
An uneventful first period featured two Kraken power-plays with two Bruins short-handed bids. One by Taylor Hall and another on a Curtis Lazar and Mike Reilly two-on-one. Chris Driedger (23 saves) turned away both while counterpart Linus Ullmark (25 saves) had a solid breakaway stop on former Bruin Marcus Johansson near the end of the period.
In the second period, the action kicked off when Kraken forward Yanni Gourde took out Bruins defenseman Urho Vaakanainen behind the Bruins net. The officials reviewed the hit, and Gourde drew a Boarding penalty. Vaakanainen did not return to the game.
The Kraken killed off the two-minute minor, but on Gourde’s first shift after the power-play, Lazar and Gourde settled up on the hit. Lazar got the better of Gourde while former Bruin Jeremy Lauzon tussled with Derek Forbort. Forbort and Lauzon had Five-Minute Majors for Fighting. At the same time, Lazar, Gourde, and Bruins forward Steven Fogerty came away with Roughing penalties giving the Kraken another whack at the man advantage.
Fortunately for the Bruins, Seattle’s power-play is ranked in the league’s bottom half and went 0-6 with nine shots on goal for the game.
Pastrnak, however, broke the ice on a Bruins power-play at 9:06 when he one-timed a Hall pass past Driedger for the 1-0 Bruins lead. The Bruins worked the puck from Brad Marchand on the top of the right circle down to Hall below the goal line before Hall dished to Pastrnak in his usual spot in the left circle.
Boston defenseman Brandon Carlo earned an Interference penalty at 11:57. During the subsequent penalty kill, forward Jake DeBrusk inadvertently sent the puck into the stands while in the defensive zone drawing a Delay of Game penalty at 13:20. This penalty gave the Kraken a five-on-three for thirty-seven seconds before giving way to the five-on-four for a minute and twenty-three seconds.
After the Bruins killed off the penalties, Hall made it 2-0 Bruins when he stole the puck in front of Driedger at 14:09. The goal was unassisted, but the forechecking of Bruins center Tomas Nosek made the play happen. Nosek pressured the Kraken defense along the boards and then behind the Seattle goal before firing off a pass out front where Hall picked up goal number 10 of the season.
With a push, Seattle opened the third period as Joonas Donskoi pulled one back at the forty-two-second mark. The Bruins could not clear their zone, and Seattle’s Ryan Donato dished to Donskoi at the top of the right circle. Initially, Donskoi couldn’t hold the puck as Hall made a play on it, but Donskoi had a second chance at it before firing off a wrist shot past Ullmark for his first goal of the year.
“It’s a tough way to start the third, after being up two,” said Hall of the Donskoi goal. “I think everyone can see that we didn’t play our best tonight. And when night’s are going like that it’s important to play simple and get pucks out when the time is right. I didn’t do that on one of the goals. There’s a lot of mistakes tonight that were self-inflicted.”
Colin Blackwell carried into the Bruins zone and hit the brakes to shake Hall before zipping a pass across the ice to defenseman Adam Larsson for a shot from the top of the right circle. Mason Appleton redirected the puck before it hit Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy and bounced past Ullmark to tie the game 2-2 at 7:30 of the third. The goal was Appleton’s fourth.
“Last game, I’m on for two goals against, tonight I’m on for two goals against,” added Hall. “Those are the things I want to get rid of in my game and be a reliable two-way guy for the rest of the year.”
Boston used its timeout after the Appleton goal. It seemed to settle Boston as a refocused attack led to a Mark Giordano Tripping penalty at 10:28. It only took Pastrnak and the Bruins twenty-one seconds to capitalize on the man-advantage.
Pastrnak buried another one-timer from his customary locale to give the Bruins the 3-2 lead at 10:49. The play resulted from McAvoy keeping the puck in the Kraken zone on a clearing attempt by Larsson. McAvoy quickly dished to Brad Marchand, who flung the puck to Patrice Bergeron on the blue line. Bergeron found the open Pastrnak for the eventual game-winning goal. Driedger got a glove on Pastrnak’s shot, but the puck’s momentum carried it into the net.
“It was about trying to take a deep breath for one thing,” said Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy of the timeout call. “Not letting the game get away from us. It had gotten to even, we had a twelve and a half minute game in front of us. If we value the points, then we got to start playing the right way. And that was about it.”
“The end of the day they got it back. Got a big goal for us on the power-play and we held on. Got some saves and got the win,” added Cassidy.
The Bruins are off until next Tuesday when they host the Pittsburgh Penguins. The game is a rescheduled game from late December. The Kraken play the New York Islanders on Monday at UBS Arena in New York. The NHL will have All-Star weekend in Las Vegas on February 4 and 5.
