Bruins Notes: Boston Suffers ‘Unacceptable’ OT Loss To Canucks

The Boston Bruins were seven minutes away from sweeping the season series from the Vancouver Canucks, leading 2-0 at Rogers Arena on Saturday night.

Instead, the Canucks rallied behind two goals from Brock Boeser to complete a comeback 3-2 overtime victory over the Bruins.

After a scoreless first period with few shots for either side, Boston jumped in front with goals from Jesper Boqvist and Danton Heinen in the second period. From there, Boston seemed to lose momentum.

“Besides maybe a couple of shifts, I don’t like the way we sat back,” Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery told NESN’s Andy Brickley after the loss, per the network’s postgame coverage. “Gotta give credit to Vancouver. I thought they were pushing really hard in the second and dominated us territorially.”

Jeremy Swayman put together an outstanding performance before the Canucks found a rhythm with their chances and created traffic in front of the net, leading to the comeback. Despite the crushing loss, the Boston goaltender is taking positives from the first 53 minutes.

“We don’t dwell on past games and we don’t focus on games in the future,” Swayman told reporters, per NESN’s postgame coverage. “We focus on the here and now.”

After the Feb. 8 win at TD Garden, Montgomery told reporters that the Bruins would see a very different team in Vancouver. The Canucks certainly proved that on Saturday night.

“That’s an elite team that had lost four in a row,” Montgomery added. “They were playing with some desperation. We saw that. It’s not acceptable that we don’t close that game out up 2-0 in the third.”

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Here are more notes from Saturday’s Bruins-Canucks game:

— Boston and Vancouver split the season series for the second time in three years.

— The Bruins have played five straight overtimes games, going 2-0-3 in that stretch.

— Boeser’s overtime power-play goal was the first allowed by the Bruins on seven penalty-kill attempts against the Canucks.

— Danton Heinen tallied a goal in both games against the Canucks with a short-handed goal on Feb. 8 and a second-period goal on Saturday night.

— Boston falls to 7-2-5 against Western Conference teams on the road this season. The Bruins started that stretch 5-0.

— The Bruins continue their road trip in the Pacific Northwest when they visit the Kraken in Seattle on Monday night. Puck drip is set for 10 p.m. ET. You can catch the game, plus an hour of pregame coverage on NESN.