Bruins Wrap: Boston Drops Heartbreaking Overtime Loss Vs. Wild

BOSTON — The Boston Bruins welcomed the Minnesota Wild to the TD Garden in their final home game before Christmas and lost a 4-3 heartbreaker in overtime.

With the loss, the Bruins fell to 19-5-6 on the season, while the Wild improved to 13-13-4.

Check out the full box score here.

ONE BIG TAKEAWAY
For the fourth straight game, the Bruins saw their lead evaporate in the third period before needed extra time to decide the winner.

David Pastrnak did everything he could to make sure the Bruins would leave the TD Garden crowd happy before the holidays when the forward potted two first-period goals to lift Boston over Minnesota.

The Czechnia native connected on passes from John Beecher and Pavel Zacha to give the Bruins the 2-1 lead in the first period that held until the second half of the third period.

Along with the goals from Pastrnak, Boston’s fourth-line of Jakub Lauko and Oskar Steen, centered by Beecher, were buzzing around the ice, generating offense from all areas of the offensive zone and throwing a combined eight hits in the game. Lauko even tried to get a Michigan past Wild goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury but Fleury was able to get the blocker up to keep the puck out of the net.

The Wild countered with two third-period goals from Kirill Kaprizov and Ryan Hartman for the 3-2 Minnesota lead. Marcus Johansson scored the first goal for the Wild to open the scoring in the first period.

With the goalie pulled, Brad Marchand got the equalizer on the power play with 1:06 remaining in the game to force overtime.

STARS OF THE GAME
— Kaprizov scored the game-winner for the Wild at 2:54 of overtime.

— Pastrnak scored his 18th and 19th goals of the season in the first period.

Starting with some spaghetti 🍝@pastrnak96 | #NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/VQonQ3a2hr

— NESN (@NESN) December 20, 2023

— Lauko got the TD Garden crowd loud in the middle of the first period when the forward dropped the gloves against Connor Dewar.

Must’ve had his pregame 🍇 pic.twitter.com/Ip5699MB8o

— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) December 20, 2023

WAGER WATCH
FanDuel Sportsbook set the odds that Pastrnak would light the lamp twice in the game at +550. The Bruins sniper cleared those odds with two goals in the first period. A $100 wager on Pastrnak would have netted a $650 payout.

UP NEXT
The Bruins are back in action on Friday night when they travel to Winnipeg for a matchup with the Jets. Puck drop from Canada Life Centre is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET, and you can catch all the action, plus an hour of pregame coverage on NESN.