A good ol’ fashioned script flip is never a bad call.
But for the Bruins, who have surrendered game-tying or game-winning goals in the final minute of play in three of their last four games entering Thursday’s meeting with the Blackhawks, it was about damn time.
“For us to score one late [with] all the ones we’ve given up late, that’s a nice turn of events for us,” Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy said after the win. “Hopefully going into Arizona [on Saturday night], we can build off [those] good habits we had in the third and not have to talk about the bad habits.”
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For the Bruins, that started almost from the moment that the Blackhawks’ Brandon Hagel created his own break and scored the game-tying goal at the 3:24 mark of the third period.
“I think our guys knew, ‘OK, they got one. They have some skill guys [and] they’re gonna cash in, so let’s just start our push again,'” Cassidy said. “I liked that part. That we responded well. It didn’t bother us that much. We kept after it offensively.”
The push was a consistent one, too, and led by the Bruins’ second line with Erik Haula between Taylor Hall and David Pastrnak.
This was a line that created and created and created some more. Especially late. And though it was fair to wonder if they squandered their best chance when Charlie McAvoy found himself right in Kevin Lankinen’s home plate area and with the puck on his stick, a buzzer-beating strike from Pastrnak gave the B’s the turnabout they desperately wanted and needed.
David Pastrnak gives Boston the lead with 17 seconds left.
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) March 11, 2022
4-3 Bruins. pic.twitter.com/PRuYpDq8oE
Wins against rebuilding squads don’t really mean much in the grand scheme of things, we all know, but winning in this fashion? It means something, if only because it’s breaking out a potentially troubling trend in a necessary fashion.
“It was a big bounce-back for us,” Pastrnak admitted. “We were around it today. We could’ve had a couple more and that’s how it goes sometimes. You just have to stick with it.”
Until the final horn. As they know better than most these days.
Here’s some other thoughts and notes from a 4-3 win over the Blackhawks…