The Boston Bruins’ losing streak extended to a season-worst four games in a 3-2 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Saturday.
For the second time this week, the Boston Bruins lost to the Minnesota Wild, this time by a 3-2 score on Saturday. The Wild previously beat the Bruins on Tuesday in a 4-3 overtime win.
David Pastrnak and Morgan Geekie scored for Boston, which dropped to 19-7-6. Linus Ullmark made 32 saves. The Bruins committed six penalties for a total of 15 penalty minutes, including five minutes for Jakub Lauko’s fight with Brandon Duhaime at 2:41 of the first period.
“We haven’t been scoring as many goals as we would like to,” Pastrnak said. “There’s probably reason for it. Obviously we need to work harder for the offense in this league, and [it] doesn’t help when you’re a quarter of the game on the penalty kill.”
Pastrnak opened the scoring at 2:37 with a one-timer on the power play. Charlie McAvoy dished it to Pastrnak in the left circle from the point, and the Bruins’ leading scorer unloaded for his 20th goal of the season.
It was a low-event period, with 11 total shots on goal (6-5, BOS), but the Bruins liked the way they started the game.
“I liked the first 15 minutes of our game, and I liked the last 10 minutes of our game,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said.
In between? That’s where the Wild turned the tide, scoring twice in a 1:25 span during the second period to take the lead before cruising into the third. By the time the Bruins got back into the game, it was too late.
First, Joel Eriksson Ek made it 1-1 on the power play at 5:57, although it was technically Brandon Carlo who hit it into his own net amid a net-front scramble following Eriksson Ek’s shot.
“Their power play gave them some momentum,” Bruins captain Brad Marchand said. “Got them back in the game, and we just didn’t do a good enough job recovering from that and getting momentum back. We ended up playing a lot of the game in our end after that.”
Kirill Kaprizov continued his hot streak, executing a give-and-go with Alex Goligoski at 7:22 to give Minnesota a 2-1 lead.
Marchand had a rebound chance on an open net less than a minute into the third period, but Wild defenseman Zach Bogosian got his stick in front to maintain the lead, which Marcus Foligno extended to 3-1 with a net-front tap-in off a feed from Pat Maroon at 3:10 of the third, just seconds after Charlie Coyle’s high-sticking penalty expired.
Geekie cut it to 3-2 at 13:53, finishing off Danton Heinen’s feed from behind the net. Heinen’s aggressive forecheck helped him establish possession behind the net, where he found Geekie in front to complete the play.
The Bruins fought for the tying goal with Ullmark pulled for the extra skater for the final 1:41, but couldn’t find it as Minnesota pulled out the win again.
“We just need a more considerate effort,” Montgomery said. “People gotta stay in the moment, they can’t worry about their previous shift or worry about what’s happening in five minutes. They gotta focus, reset and go out there for that next shift.”