The Boston Bruins wasted a tremendous effort from goalie Tuukka Rask in a 1-0 road loss to the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night.
Boston struggled to generate any offense without leading goal scorer David Pastrnak, who didn’t play because of an undisclosed injury. The Wild had a 62-47 edge in shot attempts and dominated puck possession before Mikael Granlund scored the game’s only goal with under a minute remaining in the third period.
Here’s a recap of Bruins-Wild.
WALL OF TUUKKA
Rask entered the game with the best goals against average (1.45), tied for the most wins (10) and tied for the second-best save percentage (.945) in the NHL. He turned in another excellent performance versus the Wild, stopping 28 of the 29 shots he faced. He’s now given up one goal or less in eight of his 12 games played. Unfortunately for Rask, his offense gave him no support Thursday night.
SECOND-PERIOD STRUGGLES
The Bruins were outshot 11-1 over the first nine minutes of the second period, and it took them 6:15 to tally their first shot on goal of the frame.
The Wild couldn’t turn all their puck possession into a goal, though, as Rask made 12 saves in the period to keep the game scoreless through 40 minutes.
REPLAY TAKES IT AWAY
B’s forward David Backes scored on a tip off a John-Michael Liles shot in the second period, but the goal was taken away when Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau successfully challenged the play for offside. Bruins forward Ryan Spooner was offside during the buildup to the goal, and the correct call was made by the referees.
PENALTY KILLING
The Bruins entered Thursday with the 12th-best penalty kill in the league with an 83.6 percent success rate. They were a perfect 3 for 3 against the Wild and 7 for 8 overall on their three-game road trip.
SHUTOUT
Minnesota netminder Devan Dubnyk finished the Bruins-Wild season series 2-0 with 52 saves on 52 shots. He ranks inside the top five in the league in both save percentage and goals against average.
UP NEXT
The Bruins return to TD Garden for a matchup with the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday night.
Thumbnail photo via Bruce Fedyck/USA TODAY Sports Images
