"I thought we were clearly the better team in the first period," Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. "The residual effect of the emotional win in Game 7 (on Tuesday), they had time off, that can go either way, and usually it's hard to find your game when you have that much time off, the intensity level.
"I think every game is important, but if we played well and it had not gone our way tonight, you're going to be a little hard on yourself."
The Blue Jackets took a 2-1 lead on goals 13 seconds apart in the third period, the fastest two goals by Columbus in a playoff game.
Brandon Dubinsky tied it at 7:39 when he deflected Seth Jones' shot from the slot. Coyle lost the puck to Riley Nash at the blue line seconds before the goal.
Pierre-Luc Dubois scored at 7:52. Artemi Panarin made a clean entry into the Boston zone and took a shot from the top of the left face-off circle that went off Dubois' leg into the net.
Columbus lost for the first time this postseason; it swept the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round.
"Yeah, it's tough, obviously, you know we'd like to get that one back there at the end of the third, but we didn't sit back afterwards," Dubinsky said. "I thought we pushed them for the last five minutes of that period and into overtime. And it's overtime, anything can happen."
Noel Acciari scored a shorthanded goal on a 2-on-1 at 10:34 of the first period to give Boston a 1-0 lead. His shot from the right face-off circle went inside the far post with Joakim Nordstrom providing the net drive.
The Blue Jackets, playing their first game in nine days, didn't have a shot on goal until 6:52 of the first period. Boston outshot Columbus 14-4 in the period.
"Yeah, we had our struggles in the first," Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella said. "But found our game for a number of minutes there, but we just couldn't finish the game."
