Bruins Beat Ottawa in Overtime, Extend Win Streak to Five Games

BOSTON –– Andrew Peeke took a hit, left the game, came back, blocked a shot and – somehow – finished the night with two assists.

The defenseman’s gritty showing in the Boston Bruins’ 3-2 overtime victory over the Ottawa Senators on Thursday at TD Garden spoke to one of the reasons the team has strung together a five-game win streak. Players are giving their all for one another.

​“Little whirlwind of a game. But feel good, happy to get the win,” Peeke said. “Good feeling in the room right now."

Peeke’s efforts did not go unnoticed. He received the “Grinder Award” puck in the locker room after the back-and-forth matchup, as voted on by his teammates.

“That is why he is big for our team, because he does the dirty work,” head coach Marco Sturm said.

It was a microcosm of the Bruins’ pushback against a Senators team that had beaten them 7-2 just 10 days ago.​

Ottawa took a 1-0 lead in the first period with a snapshot from Michael Amadio off a 2-on-1 at 5:42. However, the B’s responded in the middle frame, pulling ahead with goals from Morgan Geekie and Sean Kuraly.

Geekie knotted the matchup 1-1 to open the second. After keeping the puck in the zone along the boards, Geekie crashed the net and poked in the rebound of Peeke’s shot from the right circle. It was Geekie’s 10th goal of the season, which is a team high, and an extension of his strong offensive start. It took Geekie until Jan. 11 last year to reach 10 goals; he has now hit it in early November.

“These guys give me everything they have, they really do,” Sturm said. “Did we play the way we wanted early on? Probably not. But I think everyone gets it now. Everyone knows me now, knows what I want out of them.”​

Kuraly’s second goal of the year put the Bruins up 2-1. Tanner Jeannot worked the puck down low before popping it over to Kuraly, who sniped it past Linus Ullmark at 16:03. Peeke picked up the secondary assist on the play, which marked his first multi-point game of the season.​

“I got the puck and heard the bench talking that I had some time, so I got to the middle there and kind of held onto it until someone came to me,” Jeannot said. “Eventually, two guys came to me, and Sean was in a great spot in the middle there and had a great shot to finish.”

Kuraly jumped into the TD Garden glass, resurrecting his signature celly in the Black & Gold.​

“I figured, after that one went in, it was overdue,” Kurlay said. “It actually wasn’t rehearsed. But the second it went in, I knew what I had to do.”

The Senators found the 2-2 equalizer with a tally from Claude Giroux at 11:52 of the third, which ultimately forced overtime.

​Pavel Zacha was the hero on Thursday, knocking in the loose puck from Charlie McAvoy’s chance with six seconds remaining in overtime to secure the 3-2 win. McAvoy logged his 12th assist of the season, which is ranked second in the league for all NHL defensemen, just behind Cale Makar.

“It’s huge. We’ve been on the wrong side of that a couple times this year. We stuck with it," Peeke said. "They had a little push in the third, they got one. But we fought until the end, just needed the extra time, and found a way to get one.”

Joonas Korpisalo was in net for Boston – against his former team – and posted 20 saves, many of which held the Bruins in the competition late.

“He was great,” Jeannot said. “Both goalies have been great. It feels really good to know you have a solid goaltender back there. I can’t say enough good things.”

The Bruins are back in action on Saturday with a 7 p.m. contest against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena.