Game 3 of the Stanley Cup playoffs between the Boston Bruins and Ottawa Senators was played out at the TD Garden, Monday night, with the series tied 1-1.
Seven minutes in to the first, with Boston pressuring the Senators goal, Zack Smith got 
the puck on the end of his stick behind the net, and passed it across to Erik Karlsson.
Karlsson’s long pass down the ice was picked up by Mike Hoffman in plenty of space and just Tuukka Rask to beat.
Hoffman’s fancy stick work pulled Rask over to one side of the goal, and an extended backhander gave the puck enough of a push to go across the goal like as Rask could do nothing but watch it slide past his skate.
Twenty five seconds later and the puck was moving around the goal, through the crease and ended up in the Bruins net once more, this time Derik Brassard being the one to beat Rask, Bobby Ryan and Viktor Stalberg picking up the assists.
“It was definitely a terrible start on our part,” Boston’s Patrice Bergeron said. “That can’t happen this time of year. They took advantage of us not getting the first period we wanted, and we were playing catch-up hockey and definitely did a great job getting back in the game.”
Coming in to the second period, Kevan Miller picked up an interference penalty against Ryan Dzingel. The Senators used the power play to their advantage, moving the puck around the Bruins zone, pulling the defence out from the goal. Brassard sent the puck across the ice to Chris Wideman, who sent it back to Hoffman out near the blue line, Hoffman had already wound up, so when the puck came to him it was sent with real power in to the net once more.
The Bruins set too, and fought back from the 3-0 position they now found themselves in. Taking the puck down to the Senators zone, Riley Nash sent it back to John-Michael Liles at the back. Liles shot the puck at the middle of the goal, and Craig Anderson looked like he had it covered until Noel Acciari got his stick involved, his deflection altering the path of the puck enough to knock it between Anderson’s open legs.
Not quite with the speed of Ottawa’s second goal in the first, it took the Bruins forty two seconds to get their second of the game. Tommy Cross passing deep through the Bruins zone to Liles, who sent the puck long out of the zone. Bobby Ryan went to pick it up at the Senators blue line, but fumbled it, falling over to watch David Backes take advantage, making the score 3-2.
Managing to tie things up on a power play (Dion Phaneuf for slashing Drew Stafford), Ryan Spooner, Charlie McAvoy and David Pastrnak were sending the puck around the Senators defence, creating space. Finally, Pastrnak let go with a one timer from the face off spot.
The third period saw Mark Methot and Tim Schaller head to their relevant penalty boxes for unsportsmanlike conduct, but no goals, sending the second game in a row, into overtime.
Well over five minutes in to overtime, Karlson snatched the puck from Dominic Moore behind the Senators goal, taking it towards centre ice, sending a long pass on to Ryan, Ryan crossed to Kyle Turris and carried on towards the goal. Turris passed back to Ryan, and Ryan knocked the puck past Rask, ending the game 4-3 to the Senators.
“[I feel] great especially because I owed one after the gaffe in the second period,” Ryan said. “I knew if I stuck with it I’d get a chance eventually, and the guys around me made good plays to get me the puck. It feels incredible.”
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Rask looked deflated upon leaving the ice, but with four of the Bruins defence currently out injured Rask still managed to stop twenty eight of the shots of the thirty two he faced on the night. Anderson in the Senators goal stopped seventeen, but Boston only managed to get twenty on target.
The two teams will remain in Boston for game four on Wednesday night, before heading back to Ottawa for Friday night’s game five.
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