Bruins blow late lead in 4-3 home loss to Golden Knights
The Boston Bruins headed into the two-week NHL break on a sour note, dropping a 4-3 decision to the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday at TD Garden. Tomas Hertl scored the game-winning goal for the Knights with just 1:10 left in regulation.
The Bruins did strike first, and early. Just 3:17 into the game, Brad Marchand found himself all alone at the doorstep for an easy tap-in off a heads-up pass from defenseman Nikita Zadorov. Vegas defenseman Noah Hanifin completely lost sight of Marchand after trying to send the puck up the boards, which opened up the opportunity for the Bruins.
With the goal, Marchand hit the 20-goal mark for the 14th time in his career. That tied him with his former teammate, Patrice Bergeron, for the second-most 20-goal seasons in Bruins history. Johnny Bucyk holds the top spot with 16.
The teams made it through most of the second period without a score change, but the Bruins capitalized late on a costly blunder by Knights goaltender Ilya Samsonov to extend their lead. Samsonov misplayed a puck behind his own net, which led directly to a scoring chance and a relatively easy shoot-and-score for the Bruins’ Morgan Geekie.
David Pastrnak forced the turnover to grab an assist on the play, giving him a point in 13 straight games. He’s now three games shy of tying Jaromir Jagr for the longest point streak by a Czech-born player.
Unfortunately, the B’s couldn’t quite escape the second with a two-goal lead. They let one across the goal line – barely – with just 33.3 seconds left in the period, as a Zach Whitecloud shot found its way through Swayman and just trickled over the goal line enough to make it a good goal.
So, the B’s headed into the second intermission up 3-2. It marked the 22nd (!) time this season that they allowed a goal within the final two minutes of a period (via Ty Anderson), and the 11th time it happened within the final 35 seconds.
Vegas finally got back to the drawing board at the 4:54 mark of the third period, when Pavel Dorofeyev found himself all alone in front of Swayman after a crisp cross-ice pass from Shea Theodore, making it a 3-3 game. The Bruins momentarily thought they had a go-ahead goal later in the period, but it was quickly waved off due to goaltender interference by Marchand.
With 1:41 left in the game, the Knights appeared to have scored a go-ahead power play goal, and the officials upheld the score after a quick review for goaltender interference. The Bruins decided to challenge, anyway, and won, keeping it a one-goal game. But in a stunning turn of events, the Knights scored anyway with one second left in the power play and 1:11 left in regulation. That marked the 23rd time the B’s have given up a goal within the final two minutes of a period. And that would hold up as the final score.
Up Next: The Bruins will now have two weeks off between NHL games, as players get set for the 4 Nationa Face-Off tournament. Boston’s Jeremy Swayman and Charlie McAvoy (United States), Brad Marchand (Canada), and Elias Lindholm (Sweden) will all suit up in the tournament.
