Jaroslav Halak stopped 29 of the 30 shots he faced in the Boston Bruins’ 3-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday afternoon.
But it could have been a shutout had it not been for one mental mistake.
Carolina got its first goal in the third when Halak went behind the net to retrieve the puck. But instead of clearing it to his defenseman or out of the zone, the puck fell right onto the stick of Nino Niederreiter who potted the easy tally to make it 2-1 Bruins at the time.
Fortunately for Halak, his team “responded the right way” after the error.
“Mistakes, they happen,” he told reporters after the game during his Zoom postgame press conference.
“We try to make the right play out there and I saw an opening, I tried to shoot it out and you know, the guy caught it. It ended up in the net, but you know, we just – we were still up. I know I gave them a little bit of life, but I think we responded the right way. And we kept playing our game until the end. You have to give credit to our guys, just stepping up. Guys coming into the lineup and playing hard. That’s playoff hockey.”
Halak & Co. are back in action Monday for Game 4 as they try to take a pivotal 3-1 series lead Monday at 8 p.m. ET.
