The Bruins fall short without a full 60-minute effort.
The Boston Bruins fell, 5-2, to the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday night at the TD Garden, following a 93-second collapse in the beginning of the final frame to break the tie of an even game and see the Blackhawks surge ahead.
It was a close, 1-1 game through 40 minutes, but the Bruins slowly saw the Blackhawks begin to take momentum away as they took their foot off the gas pedal in the third.
David Pastrnak had given the Bruins the lead in the first period before Nick Foligno tied things up in the second.
The game took a turn before hitting five minutes into the third period as Ryan Donato, Tyler Bertuzzi and Philipp Korchinski scored three quick goals. Foligno added the fourth goal of the period for Chicago on a shorthanded, empty-netter for his second tally of the night.
Pastrnak set up Morgan Geekie to make it 4-2, but Foligno added the fourth goal of the period for Chicago on a shorthanded, empty-netter to hand the Bruins’ another loss.
“The same thing that’s plagued us all year, plagued us again tonight,” Geekie added. “It seems like we are too stubborn to figure it out. Especially at this time of the year, as late as it may be, we’ve got to learn to play a full 60 minutes and that’s something we’ve struggled with all year.”
Here are the game’s highlights:
First period:
Elias Lindholm threw a wrist shot at net that deflected off David Pastrnak before traveling past Arvid Soderblom at 10:39 of the first period. 1-0 Bruins.
Second period:
Nick Foligno skated up the right-side boards and into the offensive zone to let a wrist shot off from the top of the left-wing circle fly past Jeremy Swayman’s blocker at 7:55 of the second period. 1-1 game.
Third period:
Sam Rinzel threw a shot on net which Philipp Kurashev first tried to get out front. Then the loose puck found Ryan Donato at the back door for Chicago’s first rallying goal at 3:14 of the third period. 2-1 Blackhawks.
Then Tyler Bertuzzi picked the puck up from Chicago’s blue line, skated through to the offensive zone where he attempted to make a pass, but the puck bounced back to his stick to let a shot fly past Swayman’s blocker from the high slot at 4:23 of the third period. 3-1 Blackhawks.
Twenty-four seconds later, and 93 seconds after the first, third-period goal, Connor Bedard set up Philipp Korchinski for a quick snap shot past Swayman’s glove at 4:47 of the third period. 4-1 Blackhawks.
Pastrnak fed a pass to Morgan Geekie in the slot for a quick wrist shot past Soderblom at 11:08 of the third period. 4-2 game.
Foligno added his second of the night with a shorthanded, empty-net goal at 19:33 of the third period. Final score: 5-2 Blackhawks.
Game notes
- “It happens too often to be something that isn’t a problem,” Geekie said postgame about playing 40 minutes of good hockey, but then the team getting away from playing to their advantage. “It had control of it for a little bit…we can’t let games get away like that.”
- Swayman had a saveless third period, facing only three shots against the Blackhawks before he was pulled in the game’s final minutes. Chicago only had four shots on net in the third period — all of which went in the back of the net.
- Woburn, Massachusetts, native Riley Duran made his NHL debut. Pastrnak felt Duran and his linemates gave the Bruins the most opportunities during the game. Postgame, interim head coach Joe Sacco said he thought Duran progressed better as the game went on and had a really good chance in the second period. He said Duran was on the forecheck and moving his feet. “And I thought his line was one of our better lines offensively,” Sacco said. “Pasta’s line does the scoring, but that other line with him and Fraser (Minten) and (Marat) Khusnutdinov they generated some good quality chances in the second period.
- The games, and Bruins’ playoff elimination, are presenting the younger guys a unique opportunity to see where they are at at their development. With only two games remaining, Sacco said they will continue to evaluate players in these games.
- The Bruins will be back in action again on Sunday when they face the Pittsburgh Penguins on the road at 3:30 p.m.