Joonas Korpisalo carries Bruins to key win over Sens
When the Bruins traded Linus Ullmark last summer, they did so knowing that the proverbial keys to the kingdom would be given to Jeremy Swayman following his postseason breakthrough.
And while they inevitably were, with Swayman signed to a big-money deal just before the start of the season, the Bruins also didn’t want to leave themselves without what they viewed as an NHL capable goaltender if and when Swayman was unavailable for whatever reason, and addressed that by picking up a depressed asset in the Sens’ Joonas Korpisalo in that Ullmark trade. And that ‘whatever reason’ came for Swayman (upper body) and Korpisalo on Thursday night — and ironically enough against Korpisalo’s former team — with Korpisalo thrown into the fire of this game and delivering exactly what the Bruins needed and hoped for by way of a 29-save shutout victory over the Senators at TD Garden.
“Korpi made some big saves for us, some timely saves for us, which you need,” Bruins interim head coach Joe Sacco said after the victory. “Good for him. He played an outstanding game, and I thought overall our compete was excellent tonight.”
Beyond Korpisalo, who had to weather some strong Senator surges at times (like when Ottawa outshot Boston at an 8-0 clip over the final almost nine minutes of the opening frame), the Bruins also got a heavy lift from their penalty kill, which went 4-for-4 one night after surrendering three power-play goals in a Wednesday night loss in New Jersey.
“Tonight, there was a strong focus tonight for us making sure that we were trying to cut off the top, trying to keep it to the outside,” Sacco said of the penalty kill’s success. “We didn’t do a good enough job, last night in New Jersey, keeping the puck to the outside and they were getting pucks into the middle of the ice through seams. I thought our seam coverage was better tonight.”
Offensively, the Bruins needed just one goal to earn the victory in this contest, and got it by way of Morgan Geekie’s second-period, net-front finish through Anton Forsberg.
Geekie’s marker continued what’s been a strong heater for the do-it-all forward, with Geekie on the board with three goals in his last four games and four strikes in his last six outings. Overall, the 6-foot-3 Geekie has scored 13 goals this season, and has formed a solid connection with David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha on the Black and Gold’s top line.
“For me, a lot less thinking, just going out and playing,” Geekie said. “We’re all creatures of habit. We like to do the same things all the time and you get to learn where those guys are all the time and the tendencies they have, so I think that’s a big one.
“We think we can produce and help the team and that’s something we’re trying to take a lot of pride in as a line.”
And though the Bruins needed just one goal thanks to Korpisalo’s brilliance, they truly iced this game with an empty-net goal off the stick of Pastrnak after No. 88 intercepted a pass and carried a puck all the way into the Ottawa zone before making a quick deposit into the bank.
With the win over the Sens and Tampa Bay sitting at home idle on Thursday night, Boston’s win actually pushed the club back into a playoff spot, as the B’s will end the night in third place in the Atlantic Division.
The Bruins will be back in action Saturday afternoon against the Avalanche.