Bruins rally late, beat Islanders in shootout

At the risk of stating the obvious, Bruins netminder Jeremy Swayman would've preferred a save on the Bo Horvat shot that gave the Islanders a 3-2 lead in the third period of Tuesday's head-to-head on Long Island.

But Swayman rebounded well and finished strong, all while the Bruins' Marat Khusnutdinov came through with the game-tying goal and game-winning shootout goal in a 4-3 shootout win over the Islanders.

The win was the Black and Gold's fourth straight, and their fifth in their last six games since the club ended their six-game losing streak. And it was a victory that required the B's to erase three New York leads en route to the victory.

Following a scoreless opening frame, the Bruins were put an 0-1 hole on an Anthony Duclair goal at the 5:11 mark of the middle frame. The Bruins were quick to respond, however, with a Viktor Arvidsson marker seven minutes later, good for Arvidsson's fourth goal in the last six games.

But the Islanders responded even faster than Arvidsson, and regained their lead with a Bo Horvat goal just 45 seconds after Boston tied things up. The Horvat goal, which saw the veteran pivot finish a beauty of a 2-on-1 look, was a self-inflicted goal against for Boston, as it was Morgan Geekie who had a brutal-looking neutral zone giveaway to send the Isles the other way.

Boston made sure they didn't head back to the room with a deficit, though, and knotted things up at 2-2 with a Pavel Zacha power-play goal.

Back in a hole behind Horvat's second goal of the game, scored 5:05 into the third period, the Bruins needed their goaltender to buckle down to give them a chance. And Swayman did exactly that, with no third period save bigger than his stop from in tight on the Isles' Emil Heineman, which kept it a one-goal game. But Swayman would need a tally at the other end on New York's Ilya Sorokin to make his rebound from the shaky goal worth it.

The Bruins got it from Khusnutdinov, and on what was a Frankenline of sorts for the B's, with Khusnutdinov playing with Fraser Minten and David Pastrnak.

Overall, from the puck drop following Horvat's goal to the conclusion of the five-minute overtime, Swayman turned aside all eight Islander shots faced. He then made sure the night ended on a high, with denials on all three New York shooters in the shootout to seal the deal on a Boston victory.

The Bruins will return home for a Thursday night head-to-head with the Senators. The Sens gave ex-Bruins netminder Linus Ullmark the night off and trounced the Bruins by a 7-2 final when these teams last met back on Oct. 27.