Bruins Wrap: Series Tied After Boston Drops Game 4 Against Islanders

The series, once again, is tied.

The Boston Bruins fell to the New York Islanders 4-1 on Saturday night in Game 4 of their second-round Stanley Cup Playoffs series at Nassau Coliseum. This now is a best-of-three-set.

The Islanders played their game all night, and despite the Bruins keeping up for the most part, they just couldn’t push New York to the brink of elimination.

David Krejci scored for the Bruins, while Kyle Palmieri, Mathew Barzal, Casey Cizikas and J-G Pageau had the tallies for the Islanders.

The series is tied 2-2.

Here’s how it all went down:

ENTERTAINING FIRST
The Islanders controlled the pace of play in the opening seven minutes as the Bruins struggled to keep the puck out of their own zone. But the B’s certainly were playing hard, and Tuukka Rask — as he has all series– came up big to keep the game scoreless early.

Tempers began to flare a bit when Taylor Hall, who hadn’t been in a fight since his rookie season, dropped the gloves with Scott Mayfield. Tempers continued to rise when Jarred Tinordi and Matt Martin exchanged pleasantries.

Also in the period, Rask made a huge stop on Anthony Beauvillier on a puck he held onto just a bit too long.

David Pastrnak had a wide-open net and somehow hit the post to keep the game scoreless.

After a physical, fast-paced and entertaining 20 minutes, both teams went into the second period without a goal.

The Bruins outshot the Islanders 11-7.

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TIED AT ONE
Krejci opened up the scoring on the power play when he hammered home a loose puck by Semyon Varlamov after Brad Marchand relentlessly tried to get the puck into the net.

Barry Trotz challenged the call for goaltender interference, but the goal stood and Boston remained up 1-0.

The Islanders tied things up about three minutes later when Palmieri, who had a bunch of success against the Bruins in the regular season while with the New Jersey Devils, beat Rask in front.

New York looked prime to take its first lead since Game 2, but Rask made an incredible save on a point-blank Josh Bailey shot.

Boston killed off a crucial penalty when Krejci somehow was the only one to go to the penalty box for slashing Barzal after getting cross-checked by him several times. Tinordi came up big with two blocks to keep the game tied.

The Isles went on the man-advantage with 53 seconds left in the period, but the horn sounded and the game remained tied.

Shots were tied at 21 apiece.

ISLES CLOSE IT OUT
The Bruins killed off the remainder of McAvoy’s penalty to begin the third, but New York found a way to take the lead with 8:51 to go when Barzal didn’t even need to settle the puck before he batted it out of the air and into the net for the 2-1 edge.

Cizikas and Pageau added an empty-netter each to put the game away in the final minute and tie the series back up.

UP NEXT
The series shifts back to Boston, with Game 5 on Monday night. Puck drop from TD Garden is set for 6:30 p.m. ET. The game will air on NBC, but NESN will carry an hour of pregame and postgame coverage, as well as air intermission reports on NESN.com.