It’s not often a team can surrender upward of 40 shots on goal in consecutive games and still pull out back-to-back victories. It’s especially rare for a team to so when its backup goaltender is in net for one of those games.
But that’s exactly what the Boston Bruins were able to do this week.
Boston allowed 51 shots on net Monday against the Florida Panthers and 42 against the Tampa Bay Lightning one night later, but thanks to the work of Tuukka Rask and Jonas Gustavsson — both of whom posted season-high save totals — the Bruins held on to win both games in overtime.
Rask stopped 47 shots — his highest total since 2014 — to ensure that a blown three-goal lead against the Panthers did not end in disaster, and Gustavsson, making just his eighth start since the calendar flipped to 2016, turned aside a career-high 48 against the Lightning in his first shutout in a Bruins uniform. Brad Marchand scored just 10 seconds into overtime, and the Bruins won 1-0.
“It’s huge. Goose won that game for us,” Marchand told NESN rinkside reporter Sarah Davis after Tuesday’s game. “He played unbelievable. He made a few huge saves toward the end of the game, so you’ve got to give him a lot of credit. It’s great to have two extraordinary goalies back there saving our butts every night, so we’ve got to give them a lot of credit.”
Except for an extremely lackluster second period against Florida, Boston’s defense has looked very strong of late. The Bruins have held opponents to two goals or fewer in four for their first five games after the NHL trade deadline and posted a 4-0-1 record over that span.
“We wanted to bounce back from (Monday) night, especially defensively, and I thought we did that,” center Patrice Bergeron told reporters, as aired on “Bruins Overtime LIVE.” “Obviously, we gave them a lot of shots, but a lot of them were from the outside, and we found a way. And at this time of the year, that’s what you want, especially against teams like we’ve been playing. It definitely gives us some confidence going forward.”
Some additional notes from Tuesday night:
— Marchand’s overtime winner was his team-leading 34th goal of the season. He’s third in the NHL in goals behind only Patrick Kane (38) and Alex Ovechkin (41). No Bruins player has even finished in the top 10 since Glen Murray did so in 2003.
Murray, who potted 44 goals that season, good for fifth in the league, also was the last Boston skater to top 40. If Marchand keeps up his current pace, he would finish with 42.
— The New England Patriots congratulated Julien on Twitter for becoming the Bruins’ all-time winningest coach, which he did Monday night.
Bill Belichick, pictured with Julien during their pre-Winter Classic skate, leads all Patriots coaches in wins by a long shot, with his 187 victories more than tripling the second-place finisher on that list (Mike Holovak, 52). Add in the 36 games Belichick won with the Cleveland Browns, and he needs just four more to move past Green Bay Packers legend Curly Lambeau and into fourth place on the NFL’s all-time wins list.
— The Providence Bruins will be without top scorer Seth Griffith for at least a few days, per Mark Divver of the Providence Journal.
Griffith ranks second in the American Hockey League with 63 points — one shy of AHL leader and former Bruin Chris Bourque — and leads the league with 43 assists this season.
Thumbnail photo via Kim Klement/USA TODAY Sports Images
