Bruins lose to Vegas, suffer more pain in overtime
Overtime is not the Bruins’ friend this year.
After tying the game in the third period, the Bruins dropped their second straight game in in OT and third game in extra time on their road trip, losing 2-1 to the Vegas Golden Knights on Alex Pietrangelo’s winner just 45 seconds into OT.
The B’s never possessed the puck and then David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand combined for a mental mistake, going toward puck carrier Mark Stone in the neutral zone and leaving Pietrangelo alone. With Marchand far behind the play, Stone avoided Pastrnak and had a 2-on-1 with Pietrangelo, who had an easy tap in for the winner.
The B’s are now 2-9 in OT this year.
The Knights broke what had been very sturdy ice at 7:01 of the third period on their fifth power play. With Danton Heinen in the box for his second stick foul of the third period (the first one was a joke, this one was legitimate), Vegas manufactured a pretty tic-tac-toe play with Jack Eichel finishing off a Jonathan Marchessault pass with a one-touch redirection between Jeremy Swayman’s pads.
The B’s had their chances after that. Morgan Geekie was stoned by Logan Thompson in front, and then the B’s came up empty on a power play.
But Matt Grzelcyk tied it up at 12:18. Trent Frederic thwarted a breakout pass at the right point and got it over to Grzelcyk on the left side. With traffic in front, Grzelcyk’s shot eluded Thompson to even it. The goal was Grzelcyk’s second of the year and first in 20 games.
With under five minutes left in regulation, Ivan Barbashev appeared to have the go-ahead goal on his stick with Swayman down on his belly, but somehow the netminder stopped Barbashev’s shot with a donkey kick save.
The B’s pushed hard for the go-ahead goal in the final minutes but they couldn’t get it and then things blew up on them in OT.
The first period was scoreless, though not for a lack of a good scoring chances from both teams. But both Swayman and Thompson were excellent in the opening 20 minutes, turning away several high danger chances each.
Of the two netminders, Swayman was taxed more by virtue by a pair of late Bruin penalties, which produced 21 seconds of 5-on-3 time. Swayman turned away a dozen shots while Logan stopped eight in the first.
The scoreless grind continued in the second period, with fewer scoring chances for both teams. The B’s had a 10-6 shot advantage but when they got their first power-play chance lat ein the period, they could do very little with it. Pavel Zacha had the best chance of the period when Pastrnak set him up for a one-timer in the low slot but his one-timer simply hit Thompson.