Bruins blown out by Wild to close out road trip

The good news for the Bruins is that they haven't too many 'clunkers' this season under first-year head coach Marco Sturm. The bad news, however, is that one of them came Sunday night in Minnesota, with the Bruins blown out by a 6-2 final.

The loss put at end to Boston's four-game win streak, and continued what's been a white-hot run for the Wild, who have now won 16 of their last 21 games.

The trouble started early for the Bruins in this contest, too, behind a Jared Spurgeon power-play goal at the 10:11 mark of the first period. And with the Bruins down by one through 20 minutes of play, the Wild's Kirill Kaprizov doubled Boston's deficit at the 8:49 mark of the middle frame, while Ryan Hartman pushed the Minnesota lead out to three on the power play just 4:08 later.

Hartman's power-play goal marked the first time that the Bruins had surrendered multiple power-play goals against in a game since Nov. 8 in Toronto.

Down 5-0 in the third period thanks to two more Minnesota tallies in a 7:14 span, the Bruins finally answered Minnesota's barrage with a strike from Alex Steeves.

The Steeves tally, which came with assists to Mikey Eyssimont and Fraser Minten, ended what was a 117:05 shutout streak against on Minnesota ice for the Bruins. That streak, which was led by a 1-0 shutout win for the Wild over the Bruins last season, dated back to the third period of a game in Dec. 2023.

And for Steeves, the goal was good for his seventh of the campaign, which tied him with several players (including Leon Draisaitl and Macklin Celebrini) for the 35th-most in the league since Steeves made his Bruins debut back on Nov. 8.

The Bruins would add a second tally by the final horn behind an Andrew Peeke snipe with less than a second left in regulation. The goal was actually Peeke's first against a goalie since joining the Bruins in 2024, with his previous two goals in a Bruins uniform coming against an empty net.

In goal, Bruins netminder Jeremy Swayman allowed six goals on 31 shots faced, while the Wild's Filip Gustavsson stopped 29-of-31 for the victory.

With winger Viktor Arvidsson and defenseman Jonathan Aspriot out, the Bruins dressed Mikey Eyssimont and Victor Söderström in their place. Eyssimont finished with an assist and three shots in 12:21 of time on ice, while Söderström finished with two shots and two blocks in 14:58 of action.

On the Minnesota side of things, superstar defenseman Quinn Hughes made his debut for the Wild following his trade from Vancouver on Friday. Hughes finished this game with a goal and a team-leading 26:55 of time on ice for the Wild.

With this three-game road swing behind them, the Bruins will now return home for a Tuesday night head-to-head with the Mammoth at TD Garden. The B's dropped a 3-2 final to the Mammoth out in Utah earlier this season.