Boston Bruins

Bruins Postgame Takeaways: Marchand puts out Flames in OT

Published

1 month ago

November 7, 2024

Christopher Hurley

AP photo by Steven Senne

BOSTON – Brad Marchand wasn’t going to leave anything to chance.

After getting stymied on several early looks, the Bruins team captain buried the game-winning goal with 20 seconds left in sudden death overtime, as Boston clipped Calgary, 4-3, at TD Garden.

After squandering a pair of leads, including a two-goal cushion in the second period, Boston was looking for a spark. They got it from Elias Lindholm. The former Flames center forced a turnover behind the Calgary net, feeding Marchand with the OT winner.

It was Marchand’s 21 career overtime winner.

“I thought (Marchand) was desperate the entire game,” said Bruins coach Jim Montgomery. “He hit a couple posts. I thought he was skating well, but his ability to recover and just keep going, second and third effort, it needs to be contagious on our team because he’s a great leader.”

Hampus Lindholm, Pave Zacha and Cole Koepke collected the other goals for Boston.

Joonas Korpisalo made 34 save for his third win of the season.

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Pasta picks up the pace

David Pastrnak helped ignite the Bruins attack.

The right winger picked up a pair of assists on Boston’s first two goals

It was a nice bounce-back effort for the sniper, who recently came under fire during Boston’s last home game against the Seattle Kraken on Sunday. In that game, Montgomery benched the all-star for the third period, after making some careless turnovers.

Pasta set the offense in motion early in the first period. He caught Hampus Lindholm pinching in with a great cross-ice feed. The burly blueliner netted the go-ahead goal off a crisp backhander, pinching in from the left slot for his third tally of the season.

Calgary bounced back almost immediately. Tyson Barrie buried the game-tying tally 19 second later. The Flames defenseman scored off a blueline blast, beating Korpisalo (34 saves) low stick side.

The Flames outshot Boston 11-9 at the end of the first period. But the Bruins bounced back in the second, scoring in rapid succession.

Pavel Zacha set the spark rifling another Pastrnak feed past Dustin Wolfe (34 saves) at 8:25. And when Cole Koepke cashed in with a great goalmouth goal from Charlie Coyle 31 seconds later, the Bruins pulled ahead 3-1.

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Boston held a 24-23 lead in shots entering the third period.

Korpisalo hung tough throughout. The 6-foot-3, 189-pound netminder was fresh off a 20-save shutout Saturday against the Philadelphia Flyers. He entered Thursday’s game sporting a 2-2 record, 2.70 goals against average and .894 save percentage.

The goalie managed to skate off Barrie’s initial blast, keeping Calgary at arms-length over the first two periods. But Calgary kept coming. Yegor Sharangovich scored cutting the Bruins lead to 3-2 just 58 seconds into the stanza. And when Nazem Kadri cashed in at 9:55, the game was tied at 3-3.

Boston trailed Calgary in shots 33-32 at the end of regulation.

The Bruins held some decent offensive looks in the extra session, leading to the Elias Lindholm turnover and Marchand goal.

“We ended up getting the two points which at the end of the day is big for our group to push through it, work through adversity and get the win,” said Marchand. “The opportunities were there. You continue to go to the net, it’s going to work. Lindy did an incredible job to battle for that puck and make a great play. It was a good win.”

Peeke sidelined week to week

Don’t expect to see Bruins defenseman Andrew Peeke back anytime soon.

According to Bruins coach Jim Montgomery, the blueliner is “week to week” with an upper body injury.

Peeke was sidelined in the first period in Tuesday’s game in Toronto, after taking a heavy hit from Max Pacioretty along the boards. Originally ruled a major, the penalty was waived off by officials upon further review.

No word yet as to who the Bruins may call up for reinforcements. Right-handed shooting defensemen Ian Mitchell and Billy Sweezey are probably atop that list. Mitchell already has three assists in eight games with the Providence Bruins. Sweezey has one helper in nine games. Both were among the Bruins final cuts at training camp.

In a cruel twist of fate, Peeke was the Bruins poster boy in Thursday’s game program.

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Bruins land Loke

The Bruins organization added some more talent to its depth chart Thursday.

Boston Bruins General Manager Don Sweeney signed defenseman Loke Johansson to a three-year entry-level contract with an annual NHL cap hit of $860,000.

Johansson, 18, appeared in 15 games with the Moncton Wildcats of the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) during the 2024-25 season, recording one goal and four assists for five points. The 6-foot-3, 214-pound defenseman skated in 33 games with AIK of the Swedish J20 Nationell League in 2023-24, tallying five goals and eight assists for 13 points. Johansson also played in 19 games with AIK of HockeyAllsvenskan during the 2023-24 season, notching one assist.

The Stockholm, Sweden native was originally selected by Boston in sixth round (186th overall) of the 2024 NHL Entry Draft.