Jeremy Swayman carried the Boston Bruins to overtime with 23 saves against the Vegas Golden Knights, but the offense fell flat with missed opportunities as Boston lost their third straight.

For the second game in a row, the only shot Boston Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman faced in overtime resulted in the winning goal for the other team, as the Vegas Golden Knights took a 2-1 victory at T-Mobile Arena on Thursday.

Despite that, Swayman was not the reason Boston lost their third game in a row. In fact, it was the opposite. His 23-save effort kept the Bruins in the game, which remained scoreless for the first 47 minutes.

An ill-advised stick lift attempt from David Pastrnak on Vegas captain Mark Stone allowed the latter to spark a 2-on-1 rush, where he found defenseman Alex Pietrangelo for the winning goal just 46 seconds into overtime. There also appeared to be a miscommunication with Brad Marchand, who swung back towards Vegas’ blue line instead of jumping back to cover for Pastrnak and created a chance not even Swayman could bail Boston out of.

“Unfortunately our goaltender’s gotta make several great saves for us just to get a point right now,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said. “So we need to just keep teaching our D-zone coverage, teaching our tracking, and demanding and holding players accountable to get in above pucks and be on the right side of them.”

The Bruins outshot Vegas 25-12 over the final two periods before overtime, and blocked 22 shots compared to the Golden Knights’ 19, but ultimately couldn’t finish their chances aside from Matt Grzelcyk, who scored his first goal since Oct. 26 to tie the game 1-1 at 12:18 of the third.

Jack Eichel opened the scoring at 7:01, who redirected Jonathan Marchessault’s shot pass on from the net front on the power play. Boston’s penalty kill had stopped the previous four chances, but the Golden Knights finally broke through on Danton Heinen’s second penalty in a 4:37 span.

Vegas almost took the lead again after Grzelcyk tied it, but Swayman stopped Ivan Barbashev with the side of his pad at 15:41. Barbashev managed to rebound it to the low slot, but Mason Lohrei and Hampus Lindholm got between Eichel and what would have been a wide open net to allow Swayman enough time to dive on the puck at 15:45.

“At some point we got to help ‘Sway’ out, he played great for us tonight,” Bruins forward Morgan Geekie said. “We gotta find out a way to put more than one on the board, so that’s what the way it goes sometimes, but we got some things to clean up and we’ll come back ready for St. Louis.”

The recent trend of hanging the goalie out to dry is even more concerning given Linus Ullmark’s injury status. Ullmark is day-to-day with a lower-body injury, and it’s worth noting that Boston placed Brandon Carlo (upper body) on injured reserve instead of Ullmark or Matthew Poitras (upper body). The return of all three players will be crucial, but arguably none more than Ullmark.

Until then, Swayman will likely get more than his usual 50/50 split of starts with Brandon Bussi up from AHL Providence in place of Ullmark, but the Bruins will have to do more than simply rely on either goalie to push them to victory.

But even after Montgomery and multiple teammates credited Swayman with keeping it close on Thursday, the 25-year-old placed credit on the guys in front of him.

“I just want to do my part, but [the] defense in front of me was doing an excellent job, too, of eliminating a lot of the potential pucks that could have gone, like point blank shots,” Swayman told reporters. “That’s my job, and it’s a collective team effort every night so we just have to learn to get that same intensity start to finish.”

Other Links:

How Charlie Coyle Has Been The Boston Bruins’ Unsung Hero This Season

Bruins Fall 4-3 in Overtime to Arizona, Lose Linus Ullmark, Matt Poitras in the Process

Bruins Hail Defensive Effort After Losing Brandon Carlo in 4-3 Loss to Colorado

Johnny Beecher Responds To Healthy Scratch With Goal, Physical Play For Boston Bruins