Linus Ullmark stood on his head for the Boston Bruins, making 33 saves as Boston overcame three separate deficits to defeat the New York Islanders 5-4 in a shootout. One of those 33 saves outweighed the rest, and completely changed the trajectory of the game.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Hockey is a game of inches, and nothing proved that more than the 13-second sequence late in the second period that served as a two-goal swing in the Boston Bruins’ 5-4 shootout win against the New York Islanders at UBS Arena on Friday.
With the Bruins trailing 2-0 and on the power-play at 14:27 of the second period, Islanders forwards Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Simon Holmstrom found themselves on Boston’s end for a short-handed chance. The two connected just a minute prior to give New York the 2-0 lead, with Holmstrom using a slick deke to get around Ullmark at the net front.
This time, Ullmark made the stop on Pageau’s wrister, but was left sprawling with the net open as the puck rebounded out to Holmstrom. The 22-year-old forward fired on net, but Ullmark somehow managed to stop it with his skate blade at 14:32.
“I might have to do a hip surgery after that, hip transplant,” Ullmark said jokingly. “But no, it felt good. … I try to not go every day and split, but hey, sometimes I have to.”
An inch or two up, down or to the side, and New York would have taken a commanding 3-0 lead. Instead, James van Riemsdyk fed Morgan Geekie in the slot from behind New York’s net 13 seconds later, and the Bruins cut it to 2-1 at 14:45.
“Probably game’s over if they score there,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said. “I mean, tremendous. Tremendous compete, tremendous third effort on the puck. Besides [Ullmark’s] skill set of how he stops pucks, like that’s just coming down to competing for your team. And we get the power-play goal, now we’re back in it.”
That play was just one example of Ullmark standing on his head to keep the Bruins in the game. The reigning Vezina Trophy winner finished with 33 saves, stopping 10 of 11 high-danger chances at 5-on-5 (.909 save percentage), and 15 of 17 total (.892).
With the Islanders dominating much of the first 35-plus minutes of the game, Ullmark’s big stops afforded Boston time to find its rhythm and gain momentum back. The Bruins trailed two more times after tying the game 2-2 at 17:26 of the second with another power-play goal, but they were never out of the fight, and Ullmark was the reason for that.
“Huge credit to our power play, and obviously our goalie,” said defenseman Mason Lohrei, who tied the game 4-4 at 16:51 of the third period with Boston’s only even-strength goal. “But you know, we fought back every time we went down, and just shows what kind of group we have.”
Lohrei, who has just 14 NHL games under his belt, was in awe of the calm confidence the Bruins displayed during the second intermission. With the way Ullmark was playing, it’s no wonder they had belief they would pull off the win.
Boston struggled at 5-on-5, and there are valid concerns about the long-term sustainability of leaning so heavily on the Ullmark-Swayman tandem to grind out wins, but for now, the Bruins will take the wins as they come.
“This was one of those things that we had last year, and that’s something that we’ve been building and trying to achieve for this year,” Ullmark said. “This is one of those games where you know it’s gonna come if you just stick with it, and that’s what we did. I’m so proud of the fellas that they did that.”