Bruins hope comeback win over Blues will be the spark they've needed
BOSTON -- The Boston Bruins entered the third period of Tuesday night's game against the St. Louis Blues trailing 2-0. But they didn't hang their heads and think back to that shot-less third period that doomed them Saturday night in an overtime loss to the Ottawa Senators.
Instead, the Bruins focused on the task at hand and put forth one of their best 20 minutes of hockey this season. Boston scored three times in the game's final frame, with David Pastrnak netting the game-winner with just under two minutes left in regulation.
"We stayed patient," Pastrnak said of the victory. "You could feel there was the belief, and we were really one bounce away."
It's the kind of win that the struggling Bruins believe could be the catalyst to an early-season turnaround.
David Pastrnak's big night
Pastrnak is Boston's scoring leader this season, but had gone seven games without a goal until Tuesday night. His game-winning tally was just part of his big night for the Bruins.
Pastrnak got the B's scoring started early in the third when he swiped the puck away from St. Louis' Colton Parayko in the neutral zone. Pastrnak set up Morgan Geekie with a one-timer for the centerman's first goal of the season. It was Pastrnak's ninth helper of the year.
The Bruins tied it a few minutes later when Brad Marchand dug the puck out of a mess and fed it to Charlie McAvoy at the blue line, who fired it by Jordan Binnington at the 9:15 mark. That set up Pastrnak's dramatics in the final minutes.
Pastrnak gave Boston the lead off a nice one-timer feed from McAvoy, firing it by Binnington from the left dot with just 1:47 left in the game. It was Pasrtnak's seventh goal of the season, and game on his game-high 10th shot of the night.
"What a crazy shift it was," Pastrnak said. "It was a couple looks we had. Obviously McAvoy and Mason [Lohrei] were doing their thing and kind of buzzing around. They kind of collapsed and the puck bounced to Charlie and it kicked to him. It was over to me and I shot it as hard as I could."
Will comeback win give Boston a boost?
The Bruins could have easily packed it in again. They were 0-7-0 on the season when trailing after two periods. Opponents were outscoring them 16-5 when the Bruins entered the third on the wrong side of the scoreboard.
But the team upped the pressure on the Blues defense in the third, and peppered Binnington with 11 shots in the period. Boston now sits at 8-7-1 on the season, and Jim Montgomery earned a smidgen of job security with Tuesday night's win.
The head coach really liked when a reported asked if the win would "galvanize" for his team and inspire that kind of play on a nightly basis.
"It is galvanizing. You can tell from the energy in our room after the game," said Montgomery. "This morning we had a lot of energy; players were excited to play. We started the game well. They scored a couple of nice power play goals in the second and we fell behind, but we talked about staying with it for 60 minutes and playing the right way.
"Even though we made a couple of mistakes in the third -- because it's a game of mistakes -- we played the right way," added Montgomery, who was happy to see his team score a couple of "greasy goals" to tie the game.
The Bruins see an opportunity to build off Tuesday's win -- but they have to take advantage of what's in front of them.
"You can really build off these things," said McAvoy. "You've got to do the right things moving forward. But there's a couple times throughout a year where you win a game like this or something like this happens, you come back and find a way like we did tonight and you can really build off those.
"You've got to earn them and we did tonight," added McAvoy. "We've got to do the right things moving forward. But this could definitely spark something."
"You learn through adversity," said Montgomery. "Despite the fact we're 4-1-1 in our last six, it doesn't feel like it ... When you get a game like tonight and realize if you stay in the moment, good things happen. Believe in the process and just worry about what's next."
The Bruins will play the 9-5-0 Stars in Dallas on Thursday night, before returning home to host the Blues on Saturday afternoon.