Boston Bruins

Bruins Fall To Winnipeg Jets But Beat Themselves

Published

5 months ago

January 30, 2025

AP Photo/Charles Krupa

BOSTON — The Boston Bruins fell 6-2 to the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday night, but everyone who witnessed the game at TD Garden knows that it was the Bruins who beat themselves.

“We’re just making mistakes,” Brad Marchand said. “Every mistake we make is costing us.”

A shorthanded goal by Elias Lindholm that tied at 2-2 the game early in the period seemed to be just what the Bruins needed to get themselves back into the game. Turns out, it was the beginning of the end.

Mark Scheifele responded 24 seconds later with his second goal of the evening for the Jets. Thirty-six seconds after that, Bruins defenseman Mason Lohrei put the puck into his own net, making it 4-2 Winnipeg, with credit for the goal going to Nikolaj Ehlers. As if that wasn’t enough on its own, Jets rookie forward Parker Ford scored his first career goal to push the Bruins down by three.

Kyle Connor scored an empty net goal with 36.6 seconds left in the game to help Winnipeg easily cover the FanDuel Puckline.

It was at that point the Jets officially buried the Bruins, but they had done that to themselves long before.

Fans are beginning to chant, "Fire Sweeney."

— Andrew Fantucchio (@A_Fantucchio) January 31, 2025

“You have to be mentally strong,” Bruins interim coach Joe Sacco said. “There’s stuff that happens during the course of the game. It’s not always going to go your way. The momentum shifts during the course of the game are going to happen. They’re going to drag it some ways, and it’s going to pull our way sometimes, but we just have to find a way as a group to really be mentally strong.”

Boston was down in a 1-0 hole early after Vladislav Namestnikov took advantage of a gift power play for the Jets, putting them on the board less than three minutes into the game while Marchand sat in the box serving a questionable penalty for cross-checking.

Josh Morrissey appeared to increase Winnipeg’s lead, but his would-be goal was quickly erased from the board when the play was ruled offside following a successful Bruins coach’s challenge. It was no matter, though, as Scheifele officially put the Jets ahead by two when he deflected a shot past Joonas Korpisalo, who finished the night with 21 saves on 26 shots.

Marchand pulled the Bruins back into the fight by sniping a shot past Jets puck-stopper Connor Hellebuyck on the man advantage for his 19th goal of the year.

But ultimately, it’s themselves that the Bruins are fighting after dropping their record to 25-22-6.

“We have those lapses, and we just can’t get out of it,” said Korpisalo. “Today rests on my shoulders quite a bit, too. Otherwise, we had some good hockey as well. But, yeah, a full 60 minutes, focus on details, there’s there’s no tricks for that.”

The Bruins will host the New York Rangers on Saturday afternoon.