Connect with us

Boston Bruins

A Fight, A Kill And Black Friday Pasta Lift: Bruins Report Card vs. Rangers

Published

4 years ago

on

A fight midway through the second period, a huge penalty kill on a Rangers 5-on-3 power play and a healthy serving of more ‘Pasta’ on Black Friday helped the Bruins erase a 2-0 Rangers lead and win 3-2 in overtime in the annual NBC Black Friday game at TD Garden. The win was the Bruins’ sixth straight and extended their point streak to ten games as they’re now 7-0-3 over that span.

David Krejci scored and the overtime winner 1:40 into the extra frame off a beautiful feed from David Pastrnak whom he had set up for the game-tying goal 4:27 into the third period. They both finished the game with a goal and an assist. Sean Kuraly had the other Bruins goal that cut the Rangers lead to 2-1 with 1:32 left in the second period.

Jaro Halak was solid between the pipes again, stopping 26 of 28 Rangers shots to earn his second straight win.

PK Killed Off The Tryptophan For Bruins

Not only did the Bruins penalty kill off six New York powerplays but those kills also snapped them out of a tryptophan-induced slumber. Less than five minutes after the Bruins killed off a five-on-three Rangers power-play, the momentum surge led to Kuraly finally lit the lamp for the Bruins. The team claimed momentum from the big kill and it culminated in the goal. New York could’ve gone up 3-0 on that powerplay which would have probably put the Bruins down for the count. The Bruins PK also killed off a four-minute Rangers powerplay later in the third period. The penalty kill came up huge when the team needed it most.

“Probably the difference, at the end of the day,” head coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Well, all of the kills, to be honest with you. We had enough of them, again tonight. They scored as our guy was coming out of the box so we didn’t fully recover on the first one, but after that, I thought we did a really good job of dictating where the shots were going to come from and were able to get the clears once they did get their shot from the middle.”

McAvoy Drops Em And Gets The Boys Going

Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy is not known for his fighting prowess but maybe sensing his team needed a lift, he decided to drop the gloves with Rangers forward/defenseman Brendan Smith who is a much more rugged player that has been known to fight. The two did the tango at 10:28 of the second period and after the game, Pastrnak credited McAvoy for pumping up his teammates.

“Absolutely!” Pastrnak replied when asked if that woke the team up? “We all know Charlie’s not a fighter and he goes with I think it was Smith if I’m correct? So that goes, should give you enough of a boost on the bench and it did. So respect to Charlie that he was able to pick our pace up and credit to him.

‘Pasta’ Using Some Variety With His Sauce Now

Pastrnak’s game-tying goal early in the third period came off the rebound of a Krejci shot and was right from what has now become his trademark sweet spot that he somehow always finds himself open in.

What’s scarier for the NHL now is that he let it be known he can dish sauce as much as he can bury it. The give-and-go with Krejci in overtime was simply a thing of beauty and the variety of ways Pastrnak can beat an opponent is becoming larger every game.

“I think he’s getting more,” Cassidy said when asked if Pastrnak, the league’s leading goal scorer with 24 lamplighters gets enough recognition for his passing skills. “I think he’s known first as a guy with pace, a guy that’s one-on-one, a
guy with a big shot, but I think it’s out there now if you play him just to shoot, he’ll make plays.”

Related Topics:

Copyright ©2023 National Hockey Now and Boston Hockey Now. Not affiliated with the Boston Bruins or the NHL.