The Boston Bruins — save for the second line — came out strong against the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday, taking a 2-0 lead by the time there were two-and-a-half minutes gone in the second period. But as the game wore on, the Oilers began to make quite the offensive push, scoring two unanswered goal to tie it.
So with the game on the line, late in the third period really was as good a time as ever for the Taylor Hall-Charlie Coyle-Craig Smith line to wake up — considering they had no shots on goal through the first two periods — and for Matt Grzelcyk, playing behind them, to score his first goal of the season.
After a John Moore shot went wide, Coyle recovered the puck down low and found Grzelcyk out beyond the right circle, where he had a lane to fire away.
It resulted in a 3-2 victory for the visiting Bruins.
“It was a great keep,” Grzelcyk said, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “We had some good possession down low. (Smith) made a great play off the wall. Just try to find some space to get open. The boys did a great job screening in front. Just try to find some open net if the goalie is kind of leaning to one side, just try to let it rip.”
Bruins assistant coach Joe Sacco, who continues to lead the team amid their Canadian road trip in Bruce Cassidy’s absence, was complimentary of the entire on-ice effort during the play.
“We had good net-front presence on the goal. Charlie Coyle did a great job in front of the goaltender. They had to take a defenseman to try to take him out and the goalie ended up losing sight of it. It was a good shot by (Grzelcyk). Lot of good things on that goal.”
The second line finished with five shots on net throughout the game — one night after logging zero, according to data from Natural Stat Trick.
Hey, it’s progress.
Here are more notes from Thursday’s Bruins-Oilers game:
— Boston was without Brandon Carlo, who is day-to-day with a lower body injury. John Moore slotted into the lineup to replace him, skating on the second defensive pairing alongside Matt Grzelcyk. But that wasn’t the only change for Boston, with a pair of of lineup changes up front.
Curtis Lazar and Oskar Steen also were taken out of the lineup, leading to some adjustments from the projected lines. Anton Blidh returned from his upper-body injury to skate as left wing on the fourth line alongside Trent Frederic and Karson Kuhlman.
Jake DeBrusk moved back to the third line with Erik Haula and Nick Foligno.
— DeBrusk was productive in that position, scoring a power play goal early in the second period. This one had some off-ice layers to it, too, considering the 25-year-old is from Edmonton and his father, Louie DeBrusk, was calling the game for Sportsnet.
And yes, his father in the booth was as wholesome as you’re imagining it was:
— Linus Ullmark also got the start in net after three straight games from Jeremy Swayman. He faced a season-high 43 shots en route to the win.
“Linus played a strong game for us tonight,” Sacco said. “We knew coming into the game that they were waiting for us. We played last night, so we knew our goaltender was going to have to be sharp, and he was. Good for him. We needed that from him at certain times during the game. We got into some penalty trouble — they have a good power play, they capitalized on a couple of their chances. Overall, he played a fantastic game today.”
— The Bruins return to action Saturday against the Calgary Flames. The puck drops at 10 p.m. ET, and you can watch an hour of pregame coverage and the game itself live on NESN.
