BOSTON — The Bruins went down to the wire but took home a win against the Wild at TD Garden.
Boston beat Minnesota 4-3 after closing out the game in overtime. This was the second time Boston went into the overtime period in as many games.
Taylor Hall scored the game-winning goal in the extra period with 11 seconds to spare.
“I thought that was our best team identity game with and without the puck,” head coach Jim Montgomery said. “We’re very clean with how we wanted to execute, breakouts, (offensive) zone play, neutral zone play, and conversely, out checking was very good. I know penalties got us into trouble. Unfortunately, we gave up a lead, but I thought we played the right way to end the game. Our goaltender was good, and our stars made it happen in the end.”
Montgomery also added it was the Bruins’ “best game of the season.”
When asked if he agrees with his head coach’s sentiment of Saturday being the best game they played, Hall added: “Yeah, I think all three zones, with the exception of power play, we were really good tonight. We were all over them, and that’s a really good team over there, ton of good players. They have a lot of depth throughout their lineup, and we were able to smother them a lot, a lot of O-zone time. It wasn’t just a rush game for us. It was a lot of plays down low, and in all of our lines, all our (defense), you can see that they had a lot of contributions and a lot of guys playing well.”
As Hall noted, the one area of improvement for the Bruins is the power play. They were 1-for-5 with a man advantage, but Nick Foligno’s first period goal came seconds after the power play ended. The one successful power play opportunity came at the right time with Hall’s overtime goal.
“We haven’t had a whole lot of practice time with the schedule being the way it is, so our power play is not maybe as connected as we’d want it to be, but you get the job done, and you get two opportunities in overtime, you got to make due,” Hall said. “It was an amazing play by (David Pastrnak). He had the whole rink on the other side, and I had the whole net.”
Here are some more notes from Saturday’s Bruins-Wild game:
— Hall earned first star honors for his game-winning goal and his two assists against Minnesota, his first two of the season.
— On the other end, Boston was effective on the penalty kill. The Wild matched the Bruins going 1-for-5 on the power play, and the Black and Gold withstood two 5-on-3 situations prior to Minnesota’s tying goal in the third period.
“We got some really good guys like (Patrice Bergeron), (Derek Forbort) and (Connor Clifton), and the whole team is buying in and doing those little things, the stuff you have to do to be successful,” Hampus Lindholm said. And the PK was working out there. I think we did that tonight. We just have to put that power play, as well.”
— Lindholm scored his second goal of the season in the second period. Craig Smith and Matt Grzelcyk notched assists on the goal, and the pair reached 400 career points and 100 career points, respectively.
— Linus Ullmark was called upon Saturday, and the goalie kept his undefeated record intact with the win and 24 saves on the afternoon. The 29-year-old is 4-0 on the season.
— David Pastrnak scored a goal and assisted on the game-winner. The right winger added to his team lead in assists with six.
— The Bruins will stay at home to take on the Dallas Stars on Tuesday. Puck drop is scheduled at 7 p.m. ET, and you can catch pregame and full game coverage on NESN.
