Bruins Fourth Line Shines In Boston’s Overtime Loss Following Meeting

BOSTON — The Boston Bruins needed their fourth line to have one of their best games against the Minnesota Wild at TD Garden on Tuesday night, and they delivered.

John Beecher, Jakub Lauko and Oskar Steen delivered an outstanding performance in the Bruins’ overtime loss against the Wild.

“I thought it was fourth line’s best game in a long time,” Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery said. “It was much needed for us. It helped us.”

Beecher told reporters after the game that Montgomery met with the trio to discuss their play as of late and what they need to do going forward.

“He said he thought we’ve been playing okay, but not as good as we can be,” Beecher said. “We just wanted to come out and play fast and hard.”

The trio combined for eight hits and one shot in the game, but Beecher’s impact came when he assisted on the Bruins’ first goal of the night.

Chipping the puck up the wall, Beecher outmuscled Minnesota defenseman Zach Bogosian and made a tape-to-tape pass to David Pastrnak, who buried his first of the night past Marc-Andre Fleury.

“We’re not going out there expecting to score 60 goals this season,” Beecher said. “But a lot of (defensive) zone starts, it’s just a matter of getting the puck out, getting in the (offensive) zone, making a play and setting up the next line. I thought we did a good job tonight.”

Along with Beecher’s assist, Lauko dropped the gloves with Connor Dewar just four seconds after Marcus Johansson lit the lamp to put Minnesota on the board first. Montgomery applauded the bout by Lauko.

“It was great,” Montgomery said. “It got us into it. I thought we picked up our intensity after it. They had just scored and I thought we were a little flat. I thought he picked us up.”

It was the first time in two months that Lauko felt he was able to play his game since he suffered a gnarly facial laceration after being cut by a skate blade on Oct. 24.

“It a thing that gets the guys going,” Lauko said of the fight. “It’s a lot of emotion at that time. It’s been boiling in me for two months, so I just wanted to let it out.”

Lauko also referenced how positive the meeting he and his linemates had with Montgomery prior to the Bruins game against the Wild.

“He told us he still had trust in us,” Lauko explained. “(But) you got to do some things better. We need to keep doing some things.

“So, we talked about it. We said, ‘Let’s take this game kind of like a starting point again, and let’s play our game.’ I think it was maybe our best game so far. I think we did what we were supposed to do. We played physical and fast. We just need to keep working on it.”

Lauko skated in 8:39 minutes of ice time, with his fight being the spark for the Bruins, while Beecher won 53.9% of his faceoffs, and Steen registered three hits and attempted two shots that went wide of the net.

Even though the Bruins lost the game, the impact the fourth line had throughout the game was significant and they will look to build on their momentum when they travel to Winnipeg for a matchup against the Jets on Friday night.