BOSTON — In the most recent era of Jaroslav Halak’s career, the Bruins have bragging rights.
The former Boston goaltender was between the pipes for the Vancouver Canucks at TD Garden on Sunday and made 39 saves against the Bruins, who pulled out a 3-2 comeback victory. Boston improves to 11-7 while Vancouver drops to 7-14-2.
You can view the full box score here.
ONE BIG TAKEAWAY
Power plays and penalty kills dictated the bulk of this one.
Tanner Pearson got Vancouver aboard just 3:33 into the game on a power-play goal. Then, another short-handed situation for the Bruins led to a potential 2-1 Canucks lead before the end of the frame, but Boston got out of that one with a successful offsides challenge. And while the latter point didn’t count in the end, it certainly was concerning that the Canucks were set to bat 1.000 on their power play — especially since Vancouver entered the night with the 10th-worst power play percentage in the league at 15.5%.
In the end, the Canucks got 11 shots off on the man-advantage. And while the eventual go-ahead wasn’t one of them, you have to imagine that the added time on the penalty kill was wearing down the Bruins in an uneven fashion compared to the Canucks.
Finally, it paid off when Brad Marchand got the equalizer on the advantage early in the third period after the Bruins spent the bulk of a power play attacking Halak — and then dropped the puck to David Pastrnak for the power-play winner with 3:24 left in the game.
STARS OF THE GAME
— Marchand was the hero with the game-tying goal at 8:45 of the third, then the assist on Pastrnak’s winner.
— Conor Garland scored the would-be go-ahead goal for the Canucks that got called back in the first period. But the Scituate, Mass. native made up for it in the second when he made it 2-1 Vancouver.
— Anton Blidh put the Bruins back on track after they allowed a quick goal to Vancouver. It was a real beauty, too.
WAGER WATCH
The Bruins were heavily favored in this one with -285 odds to win on the moneyline (bet $285 to win $100), via DraftKings Sportsbook.
Fans who pegged Pearson to score the first goal of the game would have enjoyed a healthy payout, since he was +2200 to do so (bet $100 to win $2,200). And anyone who thought Sunday would be Blidh’s night would have made out in the end, too. He was +450 as an anytime scorer.
UP NEXT ON NESN
The Bruins return to action Tuesday when they will host the Detroit Red Wings at 7 p.m. ET. You can watch pregame coverage live on NESN beginning at 6 p.m. and postgame coverage immediately following the end of the game.
