In Boston, the Bruins’ David Pastrnak scored in the third period on Tuesday night to snap a 3-3 tie and help send the Bruins to a 5-3 win over the New Jersey Devils.
“It felt good,” Pastrnak said. “It’s been a little bit of a grind lately, but we’ve been playing well. Every line is rolling right now, so hopefully we can keep going and competing like that. … In this league, we play good teams. They’re going to come back and make their push. When that happens, it’s up to us to refocus and think about the next shift, and that’s what we did today.”
Linus Ullmark made 23 saves in the Bruins win.
Tomas Tatar, Nathan Bastian and Damon Severson were the New Jersey strikers.
Boston improved to 17-10-2.
The Bruins took an early 1-0 lead off a strike from Curtis Lazar in the first period.
New Jersey got that goal back in the first minute of the middle frame with a goal from Bastian .
New Jersey gave the lead back, 20 seconds later, when Oskar Steen put the Bruins up, 2-1.
“Steen is quiet,” Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said of the forward. “He works hard, plays the right way, goes to the net and finishes his checks. Especially for a guy that’s not that big (5-foot-9, 199 pounds), he plays a courageous game. I think guys are rooting for him. The goal was clever. … Some guys might have tried to bat it off or push it off, instead of poking it up in the air. … It was a clever play. He showed a little composure. I’m happy for him.”
New Jersey dropped to 13-16-5.
“We’re pretty happy with the performance,” New Jersey assistant coach Alain Nasreddine said. “Did we make mistakes? Yeah. But did the guys put in the work? Absolutely. The game was tied, and we ended up with a mistake that we’ve talked about all game: protecting our net front. That ended up costing us in the end. It’s frustrating, but we’re all proud of the effort we put in, especially with the situation we’re in.”
Tatar tied it for New Jersey, but Trent Frederic pushed Boston back in front, 3-2.
New Jersey’s Severson tied the game, again, this time in the early minutes of the third stanza.
Brandon Carlo hit for the final goal of the game with 23 seconds left on the clock for the 5-3 final.
Mackenzie Blackwood made 29 saves in the New Jersey loss.
“A couple of [Boston’s] goals I thought were just bad breaks and bad bounces,” Blackwood said. “… I don’t think I’ve ever had that many flukey goals go in. It was just one of those games. The thing is if you try too hard, you go the wrong way. I’ve got to keep trying to clean up my game a little bit and keep working hard, but you don’t want to put too much pressure on it.”
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