In what Bruins coach Jim Montgomery called the “biggest win of the year,” the Boston Bruins never let the Islanders pull away, thanks to three power-play goals and a monster 33-save performance from Linus Ullmark
ELMONT, N.Y. – The New York Islanders took three different leads over the Boston Bruins, but Boston tied the game each time, forcing overtime then a shootout before taking a 5-4 victory at UBS Arena on Friday.
Charlie Coyle and David Pastrnak scored in the shootout, and Pastrnak, Morgan Geekie and James van Riemsdyk each scored a goal and an assist in regulation for Boston, which improved to 19-5-4. Linus Ullmark made 33 saves, keeping the Bruins in the game with big save after big save.
“It felt like we were gonna push right to the end,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said. “We didn’t know if we were going to tie it up or not, but you knew that our players– like to me, that’s the biggest win of the year. Just because of the attitude on the bench. It’s the first time where I felt like there was energy, emotion. Everybody believed.”
The Bruins got off to a good start in the first period, holding off the Islanders from putting any real chances on Ullmark through the first five to six minutes. However, New York started to gain momentum midway through the period, which was exacerbated by a Jesper Boqvist hooking penalty at 13:25.
Ullmark kept it scoreless through the first period, but Alex Romanov gave New York a 1-0 lead at 1:42 of the second, firing a wrister from the left circle. The Islanders didn’t let up, with the Bruins’ top line of Danton Heinen-Morgan Geekie-David Pastrnak struggling in particular. While they put together some solid shifts in the third period, that line was outshot 14-5 and out-chanced 9-4 at 5-on-5.
The Islanders doubled their lead after Kevin Shattenkirk whiffed on a puck near the blue line, which led to a 2-on-1 rush where Jean-Gabriel Pageau fed Simon Holmstrom to finish it off.
Holmstrom nearly scored again at 14:32 on a short-handed chance with Ullmark on the ground and the net open, but the puck just caught Ullmark’s skate. 13 seconds later, van Riemsdyk fed Geekie in the slot for a power-play goal to cut it to 2-1.
An Islanders too many men penalty put the Bruins power play back on the ice at 16:35, and Pastrnak’s one-timer off a cross-ice feed from Shattenkirk tied it 2-2 at 17:26.
“When we made it 2-2, that’s when I really felt like, ‘Okay, that was a huge one,’” Ullmark said. “But at the same time, if they don’t capitalize on that one and really build off of it, it was all for naught, but we stuck with it.”
A Shattenkirk tripping penalty put the Islanders on the power play, where Bo Horvat capitalized with a wrister from the slot to give New York a 3-2 lead at 5:06 of the third.
Marchand appeared to tie it at 9:39, but the goal was overturned upon review. However, the power play struck for the third time with a tip-in from van Riemsdyk at 10:48.
Brock Nelson put the Islanders back ahead 4-3 on the power play at 12:01, rebounding Horvat’s shot off the end boards, but Mason Lohrei tied it again less than five minutes later.
Holding the puck in the corner, Lohrei fired on net from behind the goal line. The puck slid under Islanders goalie Ilya Sorokin’s leg, and he inadvertently pushed it in to make it 4-4.
“I didn’t see it go in,” Lohrei said. “I just saw, I think [Brad Marchand] in front celebrating. I just jumped in on the rush. Puck got to the net, there was a bunch of chaos and then went into the corner, and I just got in there, and I knew ‘Pasta’ was out front, so I thought just throw it to the net and hopefully he can get a whack.”
A Pastrnak tripping penalty with 17.5 seconds left put Boston on the 4-on-3 penalty kill to start overtime, but they overcame the man-advantage and ended up out-shooting New York 5-4 in the extra period. Ullmark and Sorokin continued to stand on their heads for their respective teams before the Bruins ultimately won the shootout.
“Probably don’t get the points if we don’t have the goaltending we have,” Montgomery said. “It’s just the honest truth, but that’s a huge part of our team and we know that. We’ve said it all year, it’s the strength of our team, but it allows our team to find our game and give us an opportunity to win.”