This one’s in the books.
The Boston Bruins closed out their 2024-2025 season, ultimately falling 5-4 in overtime to the New Jersey Devils, despite pushing back from a two-goal deficit on Tuesday night at the TD Garden.
Morgan Geekie tied the game for the Bruins in the first and David Pastrnak got the go-ahead just seconds into the second period. But the Devils scored three consecutive goals with the first two of those coming 30 seconds apart to have the Bruins trailing 4-2 after the second period.
John Farinacci scored his first NHL goal in his debut to bring the Bruins within one score. Marat Khusnutdinov then tied the game.
“Obviously it wasn’t a perfect game,” David Pastrnak said. “They scored a quick two goals ( in the second period). Good on us in the third to tie it up. We were confident we could score a goal, the focus was for us to lock it in for 20 (minutes).”
While the Bruins were able to even the game, they couldn’t complete the comeback as Brian Dumoulin beat Jeremy Swayman’s glove 1:30 into overtime to seal the Devils’ win.
Here are the highlights:
First period:
Timo Meier beat Jeremy Swayman’s blocker shoulder at 7:25 of the first period. 1-0 Devils.
Morgan Geekie tied the game with a one-timer off a feed from David Pastrnak at 8:43 of the first period. 1-1 game.
Second period:
Pastrnak sent a backhander over Allen’s paddle 29 seconds into the second period. 2-1 Bruins.
Swayman thought he had the puck covered, but Stefan Noesen found the loose puck and quickly sent it to the back of the net with a power-play goal at 4:07 of the second period. 2-2 game.
Simon Nemec made it 3-2 Devils after Marc McLaughlin won the face-off draw to him. Nemec sent a wrist shot toward Swayman that beat him high at 4:37 of the second period.
Nico Hischier’s shot bounced off Dawson Mercer out front and past Swayman at 13:37 of the second period. 4-2 Devils.
Jakub Lauko threw a shot at net. John Farinacci collected the loose puck, notched his first NHL goal, keeping on the puck and throwing a snap shot past Allen’s glove at 16:53 of the second period. 4-3 game.
Third period:
Fabian Lysell found Marat Khusnutdinov in the slot for a wrister past Allen’s stick at 5:08 of the third period. 4-4 game.
Overtime:
Mercer dropped a pass back to Brian Dumoulin who let a snap shot fly past Swayman’s blocker at 1:30 of overtime. Final score: 5-4 Devils.
Game notes
- Geekie was awarded the 7th Player Award pregame and of course, he collected his 33rd goal tonight ending the season on a night note to cap off an 11-game point streak and six-game goal streak.
- Pastrnak also extended his point streak and tied his career high for assists on Geekie’s goal, accumulating 63 assists this year.
- Postgame, Interim head coach Joe Sacco said he felt Pastrnak took a step in the right direction in terms of developing leadership qualities while staying in tune with his game losing some leaders in the locker room — both to injury and trades. “he’s had a lot of good people to look up to over the years,” Sacco said. “It’s been very impressive to watch what he did this year.”
- “He took control of the room,” Geekie said postgame about Pastrnak’s leadership following the trade deadline. “When you lose the caliber and established guys we did at the deadline, it’s never easy for anybody to grab the bull by the horns, but it’s exactly what he did. With Charlie (McAvoy) out and Hampus out, we felt a little depleted, I think. He brought everybody back and you saw the way he performed after that.”
- Sacco said the younger players were being evaluated during the game, seeing how they could handle certain situations and battle through adversities, like the rough start the team got off to in the final game. He said those players responded, playing better in the second and third period.
- Sacco and Pastrnak talked postgame about how the younger players were presented with a unique opportunity during this stretch and made the most of it — like Farinacci scoring his first NHL goal in his NHL debut tonight. His goal gave the Bruins a boost of energy in the second, and carried over in the third for them to tie the game after a two-goal hole. Sacoo called his goal a “great bonus,” and thought his line played really well, adding Fabian Lysell had a nice play on Khusnutdinov’s goal.
- Well, another season has come and gone. Thank you to everyone who has read, commented and followed along through this season and stuck with us. It wasn’t pretty. But we’ll see you in the offseason!