Bruins rally but fall in shootout, 5-4, to Jets

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The Boston Bruins rallied in the third period Tuesday night to force overtime in their match with the Jets in Winnipeg.

But the Jets found their way to a 5-4 win in the skills competition.

The loser’s point pushed Boston to within one point of the Atlantic Division top spot.

The Bruins have a game in hand on the Tampa Bay Lightning.

“I don’t think we should overthink that,” Bruins forward David Pastrnak said. “It’s another game and we just have to play our game. We’ve been playing pretty good lately, so just keep playing that way and we’ll see what happens.”

Connor Hellebuyck made 28 saves for his 40th win of the season.

Brandon Tanev netted a hat trick in the win.

“It’s a special moment, an unbelievable feeling,” Tanev said. “You don’t expect that going into the game. but it’s a testament to our team, how they play and the leadership we have here.”

The Bruins erased a 3-1 deficit to start to start the third period.

“It was kind of a weird game,” Jets captain Blake Wheeler said. “And then we had to kill (penalties) seemingly all night. The guys out on the kill lost their juice a little bit. You’ve just got to battle. Hopefully that doesn’t happen again. But you never know … we might have to go through that sometime this spring, and you’ve got to find a way to go through it.”

Danton Heinen and  Pastrnak scored tp tie it at 3-3.

Joe Morrow also scored in regulation for Winnipeg who lead the Minnesota Wild by 10 points in the Central Division ladder chase.

Ryan Donato and Tory Krug also scored for the Bruins.

[WATCH: All Bruins vs. Jets highlights]

Anton Khudobin made 28 saves in taking the loss.

“We’re a tight group. You see a guy that’s played an important role for our team since guys have gone down take a heavy hit there, you want to step up for him,” Krug said after the game. “We don’t back down from anyone, so it kind of lit a fire into our team and our group. Coming into the intermission, we knew we had a five-minute power play to take advantage of and get ourselves back into the game, and we did. Emotions like that definitely get you back into the game for sure.”