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Bruins salvage win in OT victory over Predators

Steve Conroy, Boston Herald on

Published in Hockey

BOSTON — The Boston Bruins may not have liked how they got to the end result, but results are all that matter right now.

For the second night in a row, the B’s could not protect a lead that they held after 40 minutes. But unlike the verdict in New York, the B’s were able to get the full two points on the table.

It took just 15 seconds into OT.

Mark Kastelic won the opening faceoff and Charlie McAvoy skated with it into the offensive zone. Marat Khusnutdinov jumped on for Kastelic and after a couple of passes, McAvoy sent a backhand pass at the top of the crease for the redirection goal for the 3-2 win over the Nashville Predators.

Had they not gotten the two points, this one might have hurt more than Monday’s squandered point in New York.

The schedule gives and it takes away, and Tuesday was a night when the B’s were at a distinct disadvantage. Because of flight issues related to the winter storm, the B’s could not fly out of New York on Monday after their overtime loss to the Rangers and were forced to bus back up to Boston, arriving back home in the early afternoon.

The Preds on the other hand, last played on Saturday afternoon and chartered into Boston Saturday night to beat the blizzard.

That didn’t play a factor, at least at the start of the game.

But the B’s were the ones to score the line goal in the first period, which came off the stick of Sweden’s newest Olympian, Hampus Lindholm. The defenseman took the puck down from the left point to the circle and sent what looked like a harmless shot. But working the net front after winning the faceoff back to Mason Lohrei, Fraser Minten went for the tip and missed, but that seemed to distract Juuse Saros enough to allow it to get behind him for the 1-0 B’s lead at 13:16.

 

They made it 2-0 early in the second period, thanks to the simmering stick of Morgan Geekie. David Pastrnak first danced around Roman Josi just inside the Nashville blue line and then shoveled the puck along the left boards to Geekie. Geekie took a few strides toward the net and, from the bottom of the circle, snapped a shot that beat Saros off the far post and in. It was Geekie’s 30th goal of the season and fourth in three games while Pastrnak extended his point streak to eight games.

Though the game was a snoozer, the B’s appeared to be in full control. That is until their season-long problem raised its ugly head again – penalties.

Late in the period, Pastrnak took a bad slashing on Josi. It was the B’s fourth penalty to that point and, this time, the Predators made them pay. From above the right dot, Josi’s low shot got under Jeremy Swayman’s glove with 35 seconds left in the period, changing the complexion of the game just like that.

To make matters worse, the B’s lost Elias Lindholm to an upper body injury off a faceoff late in the period and he did not return.

In the third, the B’s had a great chance to regain the two-goal lead when Casey Mittelstadt, from behind the net, found a wide-open Viktor Arvidsson a the top of the crease, but Saros stoned him.

And with 6:43 left in regulation, the Preds tied it. After matching roughing minors, Nashville scored on the ensuing 4-on-4 when Nick Blankenburg used the extra room to roam free out high and he beat Swayman with a long shot under the blocker.

It stay deadlocked after 60 minutes. It got unlocked 15 seconds later.

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©2026 The Boston Herald. Visit at bostonherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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