Brad Marchand shed the goat horns just in time to avert disaster and lift the Bruins to a 4-3 overtime victory over the Calgary Flames at the Garden on Thursday.
Off a lost offensive zone faceoff, Elias Lindholm stole the puck behind the net and fed Marchand out front. Dustin Wolf made the initial save but Marchand was able to get his backhand on the rebound and sweep it back into the net for the winner, his second OT winner of the season, with 20 seconds left in the extra session. It was his 21st career OT goal.
“That’s why he’s our captain, it’s why he’s one of our best players,” said Charlie Coyle. “It’s just another day for him.”
Marchand had taken a bad penalty early in the third period that led to Calgary wiping out a two-goal Bruin lead. It was an unnecessary roughing penalty after the whistle. He didn’t even get his money’s worth on it. Redeeming himself served as some powerful motivation.
“That was obviously a bad penalty to take, a bad time in the game The start of the period usually dictates how your team’s going to play throughout the period,” said Marchand. “That’s just a bad penalty to take, so I definitely wanted to try and redeem myself. It doesn’t make up for it, but it’s two points.”
Marchand, who was playing on a line all night with Elias Lindholm, was around the puck all night. He had a game-high eight shots on net, not including the two that hit posts.
“I thought he was desperate the entire game,” said coach Jim Montgomery. “He hit a couple of posts, I thought he was on top of his game, I thought he was skating well. But his ability to recover and just keep going with second and third efforts, it needs to become contagious on our team because he’s a great leader.”
Elias Lindholm has had trouble making his mark in his first season with the Bruins. He was stoned again on a nice set-up from Marchand earlier in the game. But the overtime play was his biggest moment thus far. He lost the draw in the offensive zone but never gave up on the play.
“He did a great job pursuing the puck after the faceoff, he started jumping on the D and he pounced on it, did a great job winning the battle,” said Marchand. “He put it out front and the rest is history.”
This one had the earmarks of another bad L. Keeping in this season that’s been ruled by Murphy’s Law, stretches of good play were punctuated by mental mistakes and miscues. A soft goal, the bad penalty and a blown tire led to the three Calgary tallies.
The Bruins began the game with some jump and took the first lead of the game just 2:04 in on a pretty play. Montgomery once again tried the Pavel Zacha-David Pastrnak combination, with Zacha at center and Tyler Johnson at left wing, and it paid off immediately with a goal.
Pastrnak took a Zacha pass on the right wing, did a tight circle in the top of the right faceoff circle and found Hampus Lindholm cutting in from the left point. Lindholm took the puck to his backhand and beat Wolf on a backhander to finish off a pretty play.
But the B’s could not build momentum off of that.
Just 19 seconds later, the Flames won a draw in the Boston zone back to Tyson Barrie at the blue line and Joonas Korpisalo reacted late to Barrie’s long wrister, allowing a backbreaking goal.
“Not too happy with myself there,” conceded Korpisalo, who would bounce back to make 33 saves, including three in OT.
The troubling Bruin habit of taking penalties continued late in the first period. First Mason Lohrei was called for crosschecking in the defensive zone and, after the B’s killed that off, Nikita Zadorov took his league-leading 11th minor on a trip in the offensive zone.
The B’s killed off most of that one, too, with Marchand ending the Calgary power play when he forced Wolf to take a tripping penalty behind the Calgary net. On the ensuing power play, Marchand nearly gave the B’s the lead again when he dinged the post with about nine seconds left in the period.
Early in the second period in a 4-on-4 situation, Marchand clanged the post once again on a 2-on-1 off a Charlie Coyle steal.
But the B’s would eventually blitz the Flames for two goals in 21 seconds in the middle period.
The B’s were finally able to reclaim the lead at 8:25 and again it was the new first line that scored. Pastrnak fought through a Justin Kirkland check along the right boards and managed to get a deflected pass over to Zacha. Before the puck even settled, Zacha ripped a one-timer past Wolf for his second goal of the year.
Montgomery was trying different combinations and another new group – Cole Koepke-Coyle-Matt Poitras – extended the lead on the next shift. Coyle stole the puck in the neutral zone and then powered his way to the net along the right side before dishing across the top of the crease to Koepke for a tap-in, his fourth of the year.
But nothing is easy for this Bruins team. Nine seconds into the period, Marchand got into a some pushing and shoving with Martin Pospisil, who was tossed out of the game here last year for a high hit on Marchand. The B’s captain got the last shot in and paid for it with the only penalty in the sequence, and not a good one.
On the advantage, Yegor Sharangovich redirected a Mackenzie Weegar point shot past Korpisalo to make it a one-goal game 58 seconds into the period.
And then the Flames tied it up at 9:55 on a botched play in the offensive zone. The B’s looked like they had numbers going on the attack. Coyle carried the puck into the zone but just before he could make a play, he fell down. With Charlie McAvoy supporting Coyle on the attack, that allowed the Flames to counter with a 2-on-1 and Nazem Kadri snapped the puck over Korpisalo’s glove to even it.
But Marchand pulled the B’s bacon — and his own — out of the fire in overtime. The journey may have taken some bothersome zigzags, but they did arrive at the desired destination, and that’s not nothing for this 7-71 team.
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