After a pair of tough overtime losses, the Bruins on Thursday got a much-needed win (and in regulation, too) against the Edmonton Oilers, defeating the home team 3-2.
Boston improved to 13-8-2 while the Oilers — losers of four in a row — dropped to 16-9-2.
You can view the full box score here.
ONE BIG TAKEAWAY
Matt Grzelcyk certainly picked a good time to score his first goal of the season — giving Boston the winner with 2:33 to go. And while the Bruins offense was relentless early, this one came down to Linus Ullmark.
Much can be said about the Bruins’ penalty kill, which was 100% on two opportunities through the first period and even capitalized to score shorthanded. And the power play even came alive in the second period to double the lead.
But once they woke up after Boston’s second goal, the Oilers were piling it on the Bruins from everywhere. They outshot the visitors 14-6 in the second period and finally scored a goal of their own to cut the lead in half.
But at the end of the night, it didn’t matter that the Oilers were incredibly powerful offensively, finishing with 43 shots to Boston’s 30. The offense was there early, and you can’t ask for much more than 41 saves to back up that performance against one of the league’s top teams.
STARS OF THE GAME
— Brad Marchand put the Bruins up in the first period with a perfect first-period goal, logging his first shorthanded point of the season.
— Jake DeBrusk, who is from Edmonton, added some insurance with a power play goal early in the second period.
— And of course, this one wouldn’t have happened without the stunner from Grzelcyk.
— Leon Draisaitl ran the show for Edmonton, scoring both Oilers goals.
WAGER WATCH
The Bruins were +105 underdogs, meaning a $100 bet on the visiting team would returned a total payout of $205.
Marchand had +1200 odds to score the first goal of the game, so a $100 wager would have won $1,200.
UP NEXT ON NESN
The Bruins continue their trip through Canada on Saturday, tipping off against the Calgary Flames at 10 p.m. ET. You can catch pregame coverage — as well as the game itself — live on NESN.
