Bruins Fall 5-4 in Shootout to Canucks, ‘Have to Really Learn From It’

BOSTON –– The Boston Bruins carried a 3-2 lead into the third period of Saturday’s matchup against the Vancouver Canucks at TD Garden.

​They felt good about their game. But things got a bit too loose, and the B’s ultimately fell 5-4 in a shootout.

​“I think two periods were good. In the third, we didn’t play as well as we wanted to,” Pavel Zacha said. “We shouldn’t lose momentum there in the third period. We were winning, and we have to close the games. I think that’s what the good teams do, and we have to learn to do that. We’ve done it a couple of times, but we have to do it more consistently.”

To the surprise of no one, Morgan Geekie put the Bruins ahead 1-0 in the first period while on the power play; it was his 25th goal of the season, which is second-most in the NHL. Charlie McAvoy got the puck at the point and swung it over to Geekie by the left circle, where he one-timed it past Vancouver netminder Kevin Lankinen.

It was Geekie’s seventh PPG of the year, which surpassed David Pastrnak for most on the team. It was also McAvoy’s 17th assist of the year, which leads all Bruins defensemen.

Max Sasson’s tally with 15 seconds remaining in the first, and a power-play goal from Linus Karlsson to open the middle frame gave the Canucks a 2-1 lead by the 4:22 mark, but the Bruins stormed back.​

Casey Mittelstadt broke the puck into the zone and pushed it over to Nikita Zadorov in the slot. The defenseman patiently pulled it around two Canucks before dishing it to Zacha on the doorstep, who knocked it in to tie things 2-2 at 9:41. It was Zacha’s second goal in two games, and 10th of the season; it extended his point streak to three games, too.

Boston regained the lead at 12:05 thanks to the third line of Tanner Jeannot, Mark Kastelic and Fraser Minten, which head coach Marco Sturm reunited on Saturday. Victor Soderstrom kept the puck in at the blue line and dropped it to Minten, who found Kastelic down low. Kastelic sauced a no-look, backwards pass to Jeannot, who ripped it home to make it 3-2.

“It was good. Just back to doing our thing. We want to be a hard line to play against,” Jeannot said of his line. “Putting pucks in their end and just being hard on the forecheck and getting pucks to the net. And being responsible defensively. It was nice, just have to keep building.”

The Canucks found the 3-3 equalizer at 3:53 of the third period with a snapshot from Karlsson, and Liam Ohgren gave them the 4-3 lift at 7:34.

“I think it was just some individual mistakes, that’s what it was, for some reason. We had a really good first period…We should’ve put them away,” head coach Marco Sturm said. “It’s unfortunate because I thought we were ready to go today, had a really good first period and just couldn’t find a way to put them away.”

​Andrew Peeke, though, ensured there would be overtime. The defenseman’s wrist shot from the right side trickled in to knot the contest 4-4 at 16:16; it was his third goal of the year. It forced the ensuing shootout, during which Ohgren potted the deciding goal in the seventh round.

“I think we just take it personally upon ourselves to just attack the game with the right mindset and kind of just try to put this one behind us as quickly as we can and get our bodies and minds right for tomorrow,” Kastelic said. “But definitely disappointing. This felt like a game we should’ve definitely had.”

​Boston will have a chance to get back in the win column on Sunday when they host the Ottawa Senators for the second game of its back-to-back.

“We have to really learn from it because these are important games right before the break,” Zacha said. “Another chance to win tomorrow.”