Bruins goaltender Linus Ullmark dishes on first loss of season

Much to the shock of many, I know, there will be no undefeated season in Boston this season.

The Bruins made sure of that Thursday night by way of an epic late-game collapse that saw them surrender two goals in the final 1:55 of regulation before Mason McTavish sealed the deal on an Anaheim victory with an overtime strike scored at the 2:08 mark of the extra frame and with the Bruins failing to land a single shot on the Ducks' John Gibson over that 128-second overtime.

The collapse was about as painful as it sounds, too, as the Bruins could not get a zone clear for the life of them over the final two minutes of the third period. And if they tracked possession in the overtime, I'm pretty sure the Bruins maxed out at about 10, maybe 15, seconds.

But speaking after the loss, Linus Ullmark opted not to play the part of chair-flipping, expletive unloader.

"Sometimes you have the luck with you and sometimes you don't," Ullmark, who turned aside 28 of 32 shots faced in the losing effort, offered. "That's just how it is. Hopefully we'll get a bounce next game."

Ullmark seemingly did enough to get the win in this contest.

Following a ghastly series of own-zone turnovers, capped by Pavel Zacha's failure to clear the puck on multiple bids, the 6-foot-5 Ullmark sprawled out and made the initial save on Troy Terry's high-quality look to the right of Ullmark. But a down-and-out Ullmark could not make the second save on a Leo Carlsson net-front look when the puck went right to him. And on the game-tying goal, it was Terry who was credited with the tally, indicating that it went off the stick of a Bruin before getting through Ullmark. And even in the overtime frame, Ullmark made a sensational save on an all-alone look from Trevor Zegras, and with Zegras going full trick-stick on the look.

Perhaps that's enough for Ullmark to look at Black and Gold's first defeat of the 2023-24 campaign, as heinous as it may have been, with a different view than most feverishly typing out their 'I was right all along' posts on social media.

"I'll just use it as a little bit of a fuel for the next one and get that sweet revenge [next game]," Ullmark said. "You know, the sun is going to rise up tomorrow as well and I'll just take it day by day. I'll be the same guy as I always am tomorrow. I'll let this one sink in, digest it, look back at it, and look and see if I can do something differently next time."

But Ullmark also knew this day was going to come for the Bruins, be it in Game 7 or Game 9 of the campaign, and that the throw it in the trash approach of this game is almost a must for this team to continue to ride on the back of its goalies.

"It's a long season [and] it's a hectic season," Ullmark, whose season save percentage dipped from .962 to .937 in the loss, acknowledged. "And you can't dwell on the past too much or else it's going to eat you up.

"We've got a pretty tight schedule up ahead, so we're pissed about it right now, but we'll let it go tomorrow."

That's good timing, too, as the Bruins will welcome the Red Wings' high-flying offense, with a league-high 35 goals scored out of the gate this year, to Boston on Saturday night.

It took 100 seconds in the third period, and 128 seconds in the overtime session, for the pesky Ducks to turn what was looking like a record-breaking night into pure devastation for the Bruins.

The Bruins, of course, decided to help them out along the way with about a billion failed clears late in the third period and an almost completely possession-free overtime frame. It was about as maddening an ending as the Bruins could have had, especially when you factor in the chances that the Bruins let slip out of reach en route to the collapse.

"I mean, we had opportunities," Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery said after the loss. "I thought the game was over twice [if] we put it in an empty net; guys whiffing on pucks and guys trying to go for the open net instead of using the walls as an indirect to clear and get off the ice. You know, that was mostly it.

"And the other thing is we could have extended our lead to 4-1 or 5-1. We had many opportunities to do it and we didn't finish the game. You couple those things together, it's inexcusable. You can't you can't be up 3-1 [with] five minutes left and end up tied in overtime."

In an 0-1 hole through 20 minutes of play thanks to a Radko Gudas shot that bounced off Hampus Lindholm and in, the Bruins stormed back in the middle frame with three goals. The first came on a power-play putaway from Charlie Coyle at the 1:41 mark of the period, and it was a Matt Grzelcyk bomb at four-on-four just 1:20 later. And not to be outdone, and with a two-game goal drought to his name, it was David Pastrnak who gave the Bruins their first and only multi-goal lead of the evening with a goal scored at the 16:40 mark of the period.

But when the Ducks' skill guys got their legs going in the final five minutes of action, the Bruins' mistakes compounded, and ended in the back of their net.

The late-game meltdown was just the fourth (0-1-3) since Montgomery took over as the team's head coach in 2022, and put an end to Boston's six-game win streak to open the season.

Here are the 98.5 The Sports Hub (dot com) 3 Stars of the night from a loss at TDG...

It's been a bit of tough sledding, offensively anyway, for the Bruins' Charlie McAvoy out of the gate this season. But in just one game, McAvoy doubled his assist total, as the 25-year-old finished Thursday's defeat with three assists, bringing him up to six helpers through seven games this year.

Factoring in on every Boston goal scored in the losing effort will get you your flowers more often than not, and this was actually the seventh night of at least three assists in McAvoy's NHL career. Overall, it was the 11th game that featured a three-assist night from a B's defenseman since 2017, with McAvoy's seven such efforts joining a list featuring Matt Grzelcyk, Torey Krug, and Hampus Lindholm (twice).

McAvoy also added a season-high four blocks in the defensive zone.

Montgomery has admitted that the Bruins are a 'work in progress' when it comes to their offense, but that is certainly not the case when it comes to David Pastrnak.

Ice cold by his standards without a point in back-to-back games entering Thursday's contest (Pastrnak had not gone two straight games without a point since Mar. 2022 prior to this mini-drought), Pastrnak was Boston's offensive attack in the losing effort, with a goal and an assist in 20:10 of time on ice.

Pastrnak also hammered a game-high nine shots on the Ducks' John Gibson, and came within inches of ending this game for the Bruins with a pair of chances that just missed beating Gibson for what would've been Pastrnak's second goal of the evening.

MORE BRUINS COVERAGE 

- Linus Ullmark sheds light on first loss of season

- Bruins place defenseman on waivers

- Sports Hub Underground with Matt Dolloff & Ty Anderson

Boy oh boy do the Ducks have a keeper with Leo Carlsson. Of course, that's not necessarily a shock when you're talking about a player taken with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, but even three games into his NHL career, this kid has talent that pops off the page.

Out there for over 22 minutes in Thursday's victory, Carlsson popped home the third-period goal that got the Ducks' rally going, and had a clean-as-hell zone entry and dish to Mason McTavish for the overtime winner.

And in Carlsson’s 16:40 of even-strength time on ice, the Ducks held a 23-15 advantage in shot attempts, 14-9 edge in on-ice shots, and outscored Boston by a 2-1 mark.

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Ty Anderson is a writer and columnist for 985TheSportsHub.com. He has been covering the Bruins since 2010, and has been a member of the Boston chapter of the PHWA since 2013. Yell at him on Twitter/X: @_TyAnderson.