Halak, Bruins blank Canes

The Boston Bruins have been waiting until the third period of many of their recent games to make the winning move.

On Tuesday night, the Bruins waited for the clock to show less than five minutes in regulation before striking.

Charlie Coyle and David Krejci struck for goals 1:08 apart in a 2-0 win over the visiting Carolina Hurricanes.

“Obviously we took a little breath there and they made us pay pretty quick,” Carolina forward Jordan Staal said. “… Guys worked hard, and we played pretty well for obviously a majority of the game. Coming up short always hurts.”

That offense backed up Jaroslav Halak who made 24 saves in the win.

“I’m just glad that I’m part of this group because it’s a special group,” Halak said. “We are so close, and we keep proving it on the ice. We stick to the game plan for 60 minutes. Tonight we did, and for the most part we do. And we believe that even if it’s a tie game or we are down by one or so, we still believe that we can come back and win.”

The Bruins improved to 20-3-5.

Carolina dropped 16-11-1.

“I think we know in this locker room the team that we can be,” Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin said. “And when we’re on, we can play with the best teams in the League. But like I said, when we come off of it … it seems like every little mistake that we make ends up costing us. So we’ve just got to make sure that as a team we’re sticking to our game plan, keeping it simple because obviously it was working for the whole game, for the most part. So you take a little bit of [the positive], but I think we’re pretty rattled in here right now.”

[WATCH: All Hurricanes vs. Bruins highlights]

James Reimer made 32 saves in the loss.

“A lot of our losses have been this way where we’re in the game,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “We’ve had so many just where we’re making that critical error, so that’s something we definitely have to correct moving forward. These ones sting. These ones are the ones that are hard to come back from. So we’re going to have pick the pieces up tomorrow.”