BOSTON — Respectable efforts in the first and third periods Tuesday night were undone by a disastrous second as the Bruins came up short against the visiting San Jose Sharks.
The Sharks scored three times in the second period and held on to win 5-4 at TD Garden in a game that featured some exceptional displays of goaltending but little in the way of defense.
Joe Thornton and Joe Pavelski each tallied a goal and two assists to lead San Jose, while Dennis Seidenberg and David Krejci each assisted on two Bruins goals. Seidenberg’s points were his first of the season.
IT WAS OVER WHEN…
The Bruins couldn’t push an equalizer past Martin Jones after pulling to within one early in the third period. Matt Beleskey’s bid to tie the game rang off the crossbar, and Jones turned aside power-play chances by Loui Eriksson and Patrice Bergeron.
A high-sticking call on Brad Marchand with 2:40 to play hindered Boston’s ability to pressure, and Jones (24 saves) foiled one final Bruins rush to seal the win.
THAT WAS QUICK
The Bruins found themselves trailing almost immediately. Sharks winger Melker Karlsson hit the crossbar on San Jose’s first shift of the night, and Pavelski slammed home the rebound past Tuukka Rask to make it 1-0 just 42 seconds in.
Thornton, the former Bruins star, assisted on the goal, and the B’s did themselves no favors with some seriously passive play in their own end.
The teams combined for four goals on 18 shots in an eventful first period, and the scoring didn’t stop there.
HAPPY HOMECOMING
Thornton was highly involved in his 12th meeting with the team that drafted him. The 18-year veteran was on the ice for four of the Sharks’ five goals and netted a power-play tally of his own that gave his team a 5-3 lead.
OVERPOWERING
Marchand scored a power-play goal in the first period, and a nifty one at that. His lunging backhander bounced off the leg of Jones and in for Boston’s 10th power-play goal in its last 10 games.
That total grew to 11 when, in the third period, Patrice Bergeron fired a top-shelf rocket past Jones to cut Boston’s deficit to 5-4.
The Bruins, who entered Tuesday as the NHL’s top-ranked power-play team, have scored at least one goal on the man advantage in 13 of their 17 games this season, including nine of their last 10.
Their penalty kill, on the other hand…
FORGETTABLE FEW
One three-minute, 25-second stretch just before the game’s halfway point proved disastrous for the Bruins. Aided along by three Boston penalties, San Jose netted a trifecta of goals during that span, including two on power plays.
The Bruins nearly killed off the initial infraction — an interference call on Adam McQuaid — thanks to a phenomenal save by Rask, but Boston was called for too many men on the ice with 10 seconds remaining in the man advantage. Patrick Marleau scored less than a minute later, and Claude Julien’s attempt to challenge the goal was unsuccessful.
Eleven seconds later, Ryan Spooner was in the box for tripping, and 14 seconds after that, Thornton was celebrating his third goal of the season.
So much for the PK unit finally finding some consistency, which appeared to have been the case over the previous few games.
TIGHTENING UP
Julien switched to a three-line rotation in the final period. Neither Tyler Randell nor Zac Rinaldo skated a shift in the third, and Spooner was limited to power-play time, though he did notch an assist on Bergeron’s goal.
Defenseman Kevan Miller also was absent from the action for much of the final frame.
UP NEXT
Two more games remain in the Bruins’ season-long five-game homestand. They’ll host the Minnesota Wild on Thursday before finishing it off Saturday against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Thumbnail photo via Mark L. Baer/USA TODAY Sports Images
