Lindholm's Monster Night Powers Bruins Comeback

PITTSBURGH - Jim Montgomery looked up at the clock and realized it might not be the Bruins night.
Down two goals with about nine minutes remaining, Boston's bench boss was pleased with how his club was still pushing the pace. But with time running out, he was content with just appreciating the fight in his troops.
"It's amazing. They believe in there. It's incredible," said Montgomery. "It was 5-3 there in the third and I'm sitting there…we're generating chances, I'm like, 'I just love the fight in this team.' There was like nine minutes left, it might not be our night. But jeez, it was."
It surely was.

Despite falling into a three-goal hole, the Bruins stormed back with four unanswered, capped by Hampus Lindholm's overtime winner, to stun the Penguins, 6-5, on Tuesday at PPG Paints Arena. The win was the Bruins' sixth straight and improved them to 9-1-0 this season.
"It's great to see the resilience," said Lindholm, whose third career OT clincher came with 1:23 left in the extra session. "People are working for each other…super stoked about the team win…we know we've got guys who can score on this team. We just have to stick with it…you don't want to be down, 5-2, to a team like Pittsburgh but it shows a lot of character the way we came back."
Lindholm led the charge in powering the Bruins' improbable comeback, factoring into all four of Boston's unanswered tallies. The hulking blue liner assisted on markers from Brad Marchand (12:57 of the second), Pavel Zacha (11:59 of the third), and Taylor Hall (1:17 left in regulation) before ending it himself with a top-shelf snipe off a full-ice rush.

Lindholm now has 11 points (three goals, eight assists), becoming the eighth defenseman in Bruins history to record as many points through the first 10 games. It is the most by a Boston defenseman since Ray Bourque in 1995-96 (4-8-12).
"I just have so much confidence in him," said Montgomery. "I just roll him over the boards as much as I can because he just believes in himself, and he can make plays. He might be the most underrated defenseman in the league…he's been phenomenal. I don't know any other words except he's pretty dominant out there."
The 28-year-old, who also finished the night with three shots on goal and three blocks in a game-high 29:38 of ice time, was on the ice for three of Pittsburgh's five goals, but like his coach remains "pretty confident about my game."
"I felt decent. Few sloppy battles defensively. It's a 60-minute hockey game. Fell behind a little bit there early. But it's 60 minutes of hockey so you try to stick with it and tonight was one of those nights it went our way," said Lindholm, who is the first defenseman to record a four-point outing in the NHL this season and the fourth Bruins blue liner in the past 30 years to notch four points in a game, joining Ray Bourque (7 times), Torey Krug (twice) and Matt Grzelcyk (Jan. 10, 2022).

Lauko Grabs His First

Jakub Lako wasn't going to get too excited too quickly.
When last the winger saw a puck off his stick in the back of the net - during Boston's home opener against Arizona - it was wiped off the board for goalie interference. So, this time, he made sure to confirm before he celebrated his first NHL goal.
"My first look was at the referee," Lauko said with a smile. "When he said it was OK…it was a little bit of hesitation…when he said it was good, it was OK, I was really happy after that."
There was nothing that was going to keep this one off the board. After picking off a puck high in the Bruins' zone, Nick Foligno kickstarted a 2-on-1 with Lauko through the neutral zone. Foligno then delivered a perfect feed across the slot to Lauko, who buried a wrist shot to give Boston a 2-1 lead with 6:40 left in the first period.

"It's not my first, second, or third game…the time for excuses is over," said Lauko, who now has a goal and an assist in six games. "I need to perform now. I didn't think it was my best game so far, but I found a way to make it better. I just need to keep performing and keep it consistent…we are on a really good run. We need to keep playing like we played in the third period."
Montgomery was hardly as critical of Lauko's effort, saying that the 22-year-old rookie has been doing exactly what is asked of him.
"He's been playing really well," said Montgomery. "He's creating turnovers. He beats people wide. He's doing a lot of good things that fourth-line players should do in this league and he's doing it consistently."
Lauko also credited linemates Nick Foligno and Tomas Nosek for their tutelage - and gave some extra love to Foligno for corralling his the puck that ended up in the corner after his goal.
"He took first goal from me against Arizona [with the goalie interference]," Lauko said with a chuckle. "He's a really good guy. I call him Uncle Nick…he's taking care of advising me, same with Nosey. Those guys are incredible. I'm really enjoying playing with them."
The Czech native went on to say that the puck from his inaugural NHL tally will go to the family of Ondrej Buchtela, his friend and former teammate from back home, who passed away from cancer two years ago.
"I made a promise to my dying friend two years ago that I'm gonna make it to the NHL for him. I think my dad and my mother - I'm not gonna say angry, maybe disappointed a little bit - but it's gonna go to his mother because I promised to him and his family as well. It's gonna go to him," said Lauko.

Ullmark Stays Undefeated

Linus Ullmark became the first Bruins goalie to win each of his first seven decisions of the season since Tim Thomas began the 2010-11 campaign 8-0-0. It was hardly conventional, however, as the netminder was pulled after Pittsburgh's fifth goal, before being reinserted into the game after Jeremy Swayman left with a lower-body injury in the third.
"I talked to Linus. I needed to slow down the game. I didn't want to burn a timeout because we weren't giving up a multitude of chances, we had big breakdowns in the middle of the ice which is usually our strength," Montgomery said of pulling Ullmark. "I just went over to him in the timeout and said, 'Not one goal is your fault.' I said, 'Don't worry about it, I need to slow the game down.' Sways went in and battled. This depth on our team is pretty incredible."
Ullmark finished the night with 29 saves on 34 shots.
"It says a lot. It shows what type of group we have and the belief we have in ourself and that you can never count us out and we should never count ourselves out," Ullmark said of the B's comeback win. "Hockey is hockey. Some days you have a shutout, some days you can be pulled. It doesn't matter. It's a very humbling league.
"I don't think I've ever seen this type of situation develop [with having to go back in because of injury. It's very unfortunate the way it did. I thought Sway did a great job in there. In the end, we got a win. That's what we're gonna take away from this."
Montgomery did not have an update on Swayman, whose leg appeared to get jammed against the post following a collision with Patrice Bergeron. Ullmark, however, has faith that his puck-stopping partner will come out of the situation just fine.
"He's from Alaska," said Ullmark. "I'm not too worried. The guy's tough as nails."

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