It was a fun two weeks if you were an American as the United States took home the gold medal in hockey. Jack Hughes scored the OT game winner against Canada and Team USA has come home heroes. Two of them include Charlie McAvoy and Jeremy Swayman. The Boston Bruins returned from Olympic break by stopping one of the hottest teams in hockey. The Columbus Blue Jackets had won 7 straight games and 11 out of 12 coming into this one and the Bruins took it to them. Kirill Marchenko struck first for Columbus with a goal against Joonas Korpisalo just over four minutes into the game. Not to worry, Viktor Arvidsson tied it up with just four minutes left in the first. Korpisalo was briefly knocked out of the game and third string goalie Michael DiPietro had to come in during the second period. While he was in, Morgan Geekie scored on the power play to put Boston on top. With Korpisalo back, Sean Kuraly scored in the third period to make it a two goal game but Adam Fantilli scored with 6:15 left. Korpisalo made some big stops and Arvidsson supplied the empty netter to give the Bruins a 4-2 win over Columbus at the TD Garden.
The Jackets almost struck first 30 seconds into the game when Damon Severson took a Zach Werenski shot against the boards and dished it to a wide open Mathieu Olivier but Joonas Korpisalo blocked the backhand shot attempt. The puck went to Fraser Minten on a breakaway but Severson caught up to knock the puck away. The Jackets did strike first 4:32 into the game when Adam Fantilli took the puck away in the Columbus zone and dished it to Mason Marchment. Somehow Marchment fired the puck past three Bruins onto the stick of Kirill Marchenko who scored on Korpisalo to put Columbus up 1-0. The Bruins best chance early on was 9 minutes into the period when Henri Jokiharju fired on net and Jackets goalie Elvis Merzlikins kicked it out to Viktor Arvidsson who's shot went wide. Back the other way, Korpisalo robbed Miles Wood then made a good stop on a Ivan Provorov one timer. During the first commercial break, the Bruins paid tribute to Charlie Coyle who was now with the Jackets. Welcome back Charlie.
Nearly halfway through the period the Bruins got the first power play when Marchenko was sent to the box for hooking. The Bruins did nothing on the power play then Columbus had a big chance with seven minutes remaining. Marchment drew in two Bruins then dished it to a wide open Fantilli but Korpisalo made a huge stop to keep it a one goal game. Then while retrieving the puck in the opposite end, Elvis fell down and the puck went right to Sean Kuraly who.....was denied by a diving Elvis. Mark Kastelic was also robbed but they kept the pressure on. The Bruins finally hit pay dirt with 4:09 remaining. Jonathan Aspirot passed the puck to Arvidsson. He simply fired it toward the net and it went off Isac Lundestrom's stick and in for Viktor's 15th of the season. Columbus got the next power play with 2:09 left in the period when Michael Eyssimont was bagged for holding. One minute later, Dimitri Voronkov was alone in front of the net but Korpisalo denied him big time. That was it for the power play and the period as the game was tied 1-1 going into the second.
Sometimes its better to be lucky
2 minutes into the period there was a battle against the boards that had Korpisalo bobbing his head around when Denton Mateychuk broke free and fired on net, saved by Joonas. Mason Lohrei had a chance in the slot 6 minutes into the period but was denied by Elvis. Things looked bleak when Wood accidentally speared Korpisalo with 13:47 left in the period which earned him a face wash from Nikita Zadorov. Wood was assessed an interference penalty but that called in Michael DiPietro into duty with Jeremy Swayman scratched.
Down goes Korpisalo
"Whataya think yer doin?" - Zadorov
The Bruins avenged Korpisalo 41 seconds later when Elias Lindholm dished it to Geekie. Geekie lost it and passed it to David Pastrnak. Pastrnak passed it to Geekie for the one timer.......HE SCORESSSSSSSSS. Geekie's 33rd of the season on the power play puts the Bruins up by 1 and gives DiPietro the chance to earn his first win. The Jackets got the next big chance with 7:23 left in the period when Marchenko blew by Hampus Lindholm and passed to an open Fantilli, saved by DiPietro. A few minutes later Korpisalo returned and once again, if the Bruins lead held, DiPietro would get the win after saving two shots. With 3:22 left in the period Mateychuk's drive was saved by Korpisalo and the rebound went wide. Nothing happened after that and the Bruins went into the break leading 2-1.
The third period began with the Bruins getting a bit lucky. Fantilli beat Korpisalo glove side just 1:40 into the period but the shot rang off the post. Werenski tried his luck but Joonas made another save. Just over four minutes into the period, Pastrnak dished to Marat Khusnutdinov but was stripped of the puck by Coyle. Six minutes in, Arvidsson's slapshot was saved by Elvis. It looked like the Bruins would put this away when Marchment was whistled for slashing but they did nothing on the power-play. The highlight being Eyssimont's shot going off the side of the net. Then the Bruins struck with 8:45 left. Tanner Jeannot collected the puck and Kuraly took off like a jackrabbit. He tried a slapshot from the point....HE SCORESSSSSS! Kuraly's fifth of the season put the Bruins up by two.
The euphoria was shortlived as just over two minutes later, Werenski dished over to Marchment. Marchment found Fantilli at the point and he buried the slapper to cut the lead 3-2 with 6:15 left.
A minute later Korpisalo came up big as Sean Monahan's shot was kicked wide but Werenski's slapper dropped Korpisalo to the ice. Joonas recovered and the Bruins got it out of the zone. With 1:47 left, Werenski's shot didn't get through but Monahan's blast was denied by Joonas. Werenski got another chance but Korpisalo made another save. With 1:15 left and the net empty, Pastrnak stole the puck and backhanded it down the ice.....no good! Bruins were called for icing to keep the play in their zone. With 37 seconds left, Casey Middlestadt kicked the puck over to Charlie McAvoy. McAvoy found Arvidsson streaking toward the net. Arvidsson's shot from just beyond the blue line went in the empty net. Viktor's 16th of the season put this one on ice, 4-2. Korpisalo made 36 saves but DiPietro gets the win for being the goalie on record.
Reaction:
That was a big win considering Jeremy Swayman sat this one out and the win actually went to DiPietro since he was in the net for the Geekie goal. The sad part was Korpisalo played very well all things considered. Speaking of Morgan, Geekie is just seven goals away from 40 which is unreal considering he was just supposed to be a stopgap forward two years ago. Arvidsson is having his best season in 3 years and who saw that coming? The Montreal Canadiens lost in overtime so the Bruins remain one point behind Buffalo for seventh place, 2 behind Montreal for third and 3 behind Detroit for second. The Tampa Bay Lightning lost but are still nine points ahead of Boston with a game in hand. First place seems out of reach but they can go on a hot streak and overtake Buffalo, Montreal and Detroit. They're four points ahead of Washington and 8 ahead of Florida as well. Ironically Toronto has the third worst record in the Eastern Conference but would be the second wild card out west. This is going to be a tight race so Swayman better be ready. The win improved the Bruins to 33-25 with 24 games left to play. The Bruins look to make it two in a row when they take on Trevor Zegras and the Philadelphia Flyers this Saturday afternoon. The game begins at 3:00 PM at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
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