Bruins blow third-period lead, drop shootout decision to Senators
The Boston Bruins blew a two-goal lead in the third period and eventually lost in a shootout to the Ottawa Senators, dropping a 6-5 decision on Saturday afternoon at Canadian Tire Centre. The Bruins fell out of the Eastern Conference Playoffs for the first time since Nov. 30 with the loss.
Tim Stützle was the only player to score in the shootout, finishing off the win after the Senators came back from down 5-3 in the third period to force overtime. Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman, meanwhile, turned aside 39-of-44 Ottawa shots (.886) in the defeat. Ottawa out-shot Boston 44-28 in regulation and overtime as part of the victory.
The Bruins are now tied with the Senators and Blue Jackets at 50 points each, but the Sens and Jackets hold the tiebreakers over the B’s with fewer games played. This leaves the B’s on the outside looking in at the east playoff picture, as Ottawa and Columbus hold the top-2 wild card seeds. The Montreal Canadiens can create a four-way tie in points with a win over the Maple Leafs Saturday night.
Long before the comeback, Ottawa jumped out to a 2-0 lead early in the first period. Forward Adam Gaudette put the Senators up 1-0 with a rebound down by the crease. Gaudette, a native of Braintree, Mass. and Northeastern alum, extended his new career-high in goals at 15. Stützle later made it 2-0 with another rebound and a snipe from the slot.
The Bruins battled back to tie the game 2-2 with goals from Pavel Zacha and David Pastrnak. First, Zacha took a heads-up feed from Pastrnak during a Bruins power play and finished with his backhand from the net-front, his 11th of the season, to make it a 2-1 game.
Next, the Bruins flipped the script on themselves with a goal of their own in the final minute. Pastrnak gained the zone off a pass from linemate Morgan Geekie and the Senators gave him more than enough space on the backcheck, as No. 88 simply fired from the faceoff circle and beat goaltender Leevi Merilainen for the tying goal with just 54 seconds left in the period.
The Bruins escaped the opening 20 minutes with a tie game despite being out-shot 15-8.
The Bruins’ forward momentum continued into the second period, as Geekie beat Merilainen to give the B’s a 3-2 lead, their third goal on just their 10th shot of the game. Zacha set Geekie up at the backdoor with a nifty backhand pass through the slot.
One of the Bruins’ hottest performer under interim head coach Joe Sacco, Geekie is up to nine goals and 15 points in his last 20 games.
During the second period, tampers flared as Bruins captain Brad Marchand scuffled with the Senators’ Nick Cousins, whose antics are familiar to the B’s from his time with the Florida Panthers. Marchand ended up with a double-minor for roughing, and the Senators capitalized with a power-play goal for defenseman Jake Sanderson to tie the game 3-3.
Emotions continued to boil over in the second with the game tied, as Bruins forward Mark Kastelic, who came to Boston as part of the trade that sent Linus Ullmark to Ottawa, dropped the gloves with forward Zack Ostapchuk.
Amid all the scrapping, the Bruins ended up ahead on the scoreboard by the end of the period. Beecher gave them their second lead of the game with a seeing-eye shot from the point. The goal was Beecher’s first in 40 games, going all the way back to Oct. 16.
Vinni Lettieri, a recent call-up amid multiple injuries on the Bruins roster, gave the B’s what at the time was an insurance goal with a one-timer from the slot, off a behind-the-net feed from Justin Brazeau.
The Sens’ Nick Jensen scored his third goal of the season to make it 5-4 with just 3:13 left in the third period. Josh Norris then tied it with just 12 seconds left in regulation, his 18th goal, as he banged home a one-timer from the high slot after multiple failed clear attempts by the Bruins.
Up Next: The Bruins will look to bounce back from the collapse on Monday, when they return home to take on the San Jose Sharks in a Martin Luther King Day matinée at TD Garden.
Matt Dolloff is a writer and digital content producer for 98.5 The Sports Hub. Read all of his articles here.