In Boston, the ANaheim Ducks scored twice in the final two minutes of regulation on Thursday night, and then got a strike from Mason McTavish at 2:08 of extra time to defeat the Bruins, 4-3.
It was Boston’s first loss of the season.
“It was a great win,” McTavish said. “You don’t see two [goals with the extra attacker] often in an NHL game. It’s nice to tie it up, and we took advantage of it in overtime.”
Leo Carlsson and Troy Terry were the late strikers for the Ducks to get the teams even, and force the extra session.
“I’ve been here a lot,” Ducks coach Greg Cronin said. “I kind of had a moment on the bench in the first period thinking, you know, ‘I’m the head coach in the Garden.’ … Some of those memories [at TD Garden in the past] flashed through, but like I said, I just kind of focus on the game and what’s at hand for me as a coach.”
John Gibson made 27 saves in the win.
“It’s tough,” said Boston defenseman Matt Grzelcyk, who scored his first goal of the season. “You’ve got to find a way to close that out, and a little bit of history on the line there, and we knew that going into the game, and it’s just unfortunate. We could have found a way to get a clear, and they did a good job getting bodies there to the net and making it tough on [Ullmark].”
Anaheim took a 1-0 lead at the 15 minute mark of the first on Radko Gudas’ first goal with the Ducks.
“We tried to work them down low,” Anaheim forward Trevor Zegras said. “Obviously get pucks in deep early, kind of get their [defensemen] backing off the blue line so we can start to make those plays, and like I said, just compete, work hard.”
The Bruins responded with three straight goals.
Charlie Coyle tied it in the second at 1:41, off the power play.
“I thought the game was over twice,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said. “We could have extended our lead to four or five [goals]. We had many opportunities to do it, and we didn’t finish the game. So, you couple those things together, it’s inexcusable. You can’t be up 3-1 with five minutes left and end up tied and going to overtime.”
“It doesn’t matter how many goals you’re up, you’re never that safe,” Coyle said. “You can’t get complacent, and you want to always be in attack mode and do it the right way.”
Boston took the lead on a marker from Grzelcyk .
David Pastrnak pushed the lead to 3-1 at 16:40.
Linus Ullmark made 28 saves in the loss.
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