The Bruins’ woes against the Islanders continued Thursday night.
Boston dropped its first game with fans at TD Garden since March 2020 in a 4-3 overtime loss to New York.
Karson Kuhlman, Steven Kampfer and Anders Bjork scored for the Bruins, while J.G. Pageau, Josh Bailey, Oliver Wahlstrom Anthony Beauvillier had the Isles’ tallies.
Jaroslav Halak turned away 17 shots after taking over for Tuukka Rask in the second period, who left with an upper-body injury. Semyon Varlamov denied 29.
With the loss, the Bruins fell to 16-8-5, while the Islanders moved to 22-8-4.
Here’s how it all went down:
BRUINS GET TWO
Kuhlman found the back of the net for the first time in 397 days when he sent the puck flying from the circle that deflected off a stick and past Varlamov for the 1-0 edge.
Kampfer then got in on the fun by scoring his first goal in 732 days when David Krejci made a nice play to battle for puck possession. The center got it over to Charlie Coyle who fed Kampfer to make it a 2-0 game.
Boston held a 9-6 shot advantage and two-goal lead after 20 minutes.
ISLES GET ONE BACK
The second period started with a goalie change when Rask did not return after the first with an upper-body injury. He was replaced by Halak.
The Islanders killed off a double-minor and cut their deficit in half when Pageau fired it home.
The Bruins held the Islanders to just one goal despite a surge from the visiting team.
Boston ended the middle period with a 23-18 shot edge.
BJORK KEEPS B’S ALIVE
Bailey tied things at 2-2 just over four minutes into the third when he wristed a shot top-shelf by Halak after a nice feed from Brock Nelson.
New York and Boston went end-to-end throughout the period. Bjork and Craig Smith had prime chances to take the lead back, but Varlamov stood on his head to keep the game tied at two.
But it was Wahlstrom who gave the Islanders their first lead of the night with just 2:56 left in the game.
The Bruins weren’t going to go away that easy, as Bjork, who was bound to get a goal, finally scored 54 seconds later.
And this one would need overtime to decide the winner.
ISLES WIN IT
It only took 21 seconds for the Islanders to put the game away with a Beauvillier goal past Halak after he made the initial save, he just couldn’t gobble up the rebound fast enough.
UP NEXT
The Bruins are back in action Saturday afternoon when they welcome the lowly Buffalo Sabres to town. Puck drop from TD Garden is set for 1 p.m. ET.
