The Boston Bruins failed to secure the extra point Thursday night at T-Mobile Arena despite a strong showing from goaltender Jeremy Swayman.
For the third straight game, the Boston Bruins entered overtime, and for the third straight game they left without the extra point.
The Vegas Golden Knights secured a 2-1 win Thursday night at T-Mobile Arena thanks to a 2-on-1 rush from Mark Stone and Alex Pietrangelo in the five-minute, 3-on-3 period. Stone dished the puck over to Pietrangelo, who buried it into a wide-open net from the right side 46 seconds into overtime with David Pastrnak trailing behind the play.
In a game that remained scoreless until the third period, Jeremy Swayman’s 23-save performance gave the Bruins a chance to win all night.
“He was terrific again. Unfortunately, our goaltender’s got to make several great saves for us just to get a point right now,” Bruins coach Jim Montogmery told reporters following the loss.
“We need to just keep teaching our D-zone coverage, teaching our tracking and demanding and holding players accountable to getting above pucks and being on the right side of them.”
The Bruins had gone 4-for-4 on the penalty kill before Vegas forward Jack Eichel gave his team a 1-0 lead at 7:01 of the third period while on the power play. Danton Heinen's second penalty of the period – tripping at 6:29 – allowed Jonathan Marchessault to set Eichel up for a net-front redirection after he ripped it from the left elbow.
Boston got a prime chance to find the equalizer less than three minutes later when Golden Knights forward Paul Cotter was called for interference at 9:36, but was unable to capitalize on the man advantage.
Instead, Matt Grzelcyk knotted things at 12:18 of the third after Trent Frederic kept the puck in the offensive zone from the point and swung it over to the defenseman by the left circle. Grzelcyk – who hadn’t scored since Oct. 26 – wristed it past Vegas goaltender Logan Thompson to make it 1-1.
Pietrangelo’s eventual game-winning, overtime goal dropped the Bruins’ record to 24-8-9. However, the one point collected keeps Boston at first place in the Atlantic Division.
“It’s obviously a tough one to lose, I thought guys were competing. A little too undisciplined has kind of become a theme here and we shot ourselves in the foot there and forced ‘Sway’ to make too many big saves,” Grzelcyk told reporters Thursday.
Linus Ullmark, Matt Poitras and Brandon Carlo were all absent from Thursday’s game. Ullmark and Poitras both left Tuesday’s matchup against the Arizona Coyotes with injuries and are day-to-day, per Montgomery. Carlo left Monday’s game against the Colorado Avalanche with an upper-body injury and was placed on injured reserve Thursday afternoon. The move means Carlo, at minimum, will miss the next three games.
The Bruins will close out their four-game road trip Saturday night against the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center with an 8 p.m. puck drop.
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