Bruins’ Brad Marchand Finds Redemption Following Costly Penalty

BOSTON — Things could have turned ugly for the Boston Bruins after surrendering a two-goal lead to the Calgary Flames in the third period.

Fortunately for the Black and Gold, their captain Brad Marchand scored the overtime game-winning goal with just 20 seconds remaining in the extra frame to seal the 4-3 victory for the Bruins.

“He’s really good one-on-one,” Bruins defenseman Hampus Lindholm said. “… He’s just like a pit bull. Like meat and bone, he just never leaves it alone. He wins his battle. He’s hungry and that’s the way you score three-on-three in this league.”

Marchand was called for a roughing penalty just nine seconds into the third period. While the feisty forward was sitting in the box, the Flame capitalized for a power-play goal, cutting the lead to 3-2.

“It’s a bad penalty to take. Bad time of the game,” Marchand said. “The start of the period usually dictates in a position like that how your team is going to play throughout the period. It’s just a bad penalty to take so I definitely wanted to redeem myself. It doesn’t make up for it, but it’s good we got the two points.”

Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery noticed Marchand was playing “desperate” from the get-go, not just at the start of the third period.

“I thought he was desperate the entire game,” Montgomery said. “He had a couple of (shots go off the) posts. I thought he was on top of his game. I thought he was skating well. His ability to recover and keep going, his second and third effort, it needs to become contagious on our team because he’s a great leader.”

Even though Marchand’s goal secured Boston’s win, he credited Elias Lindholm’s tenacity on the puck, allowing the play to develop.

“He did a great job pursuing the puck after the faceoff,” Marchand explained. “I think he kind of started jumping on the D and he pounced on it. Did a great job winning that battle and put it out in front and the rest is history.”

Marchand now has 21 overtime goals in his career, which is the most in franchise history. The game-winner was the 79th of his career and ranks him third in Bruins history, trailing only Johnny Bucyk (88) and Patrice Bergeron (81).