Tonight Should Serve As A Strong Reminder to Bruins Fans Why You Never Leave a Game Early

Look I get it. When I was younger, I could never understand why anyone would leave an expensive professional sporting event early. Now, adult Richard has thankfully grown from child Richard (in at least some ways, I hope) and I understand that life can come calling at times and you simply cannot spend all day/night at a particular game. However, I still think there are certain situations like tonight (Saturday night!) where there is no reasonable excuse (minus a medical emergency, awful weather, etc). For that alone, it did feel like some sort of poetic justice for all the Bruins (15-3-5) fans who bounced in the third period with their team down 4-2 that they pulled a miracle out of their sweaty hockey pants with an unreal 5-4 overtime victory against the Wild (9-11-3).

David Krejci scored twice with an extra skater on with under two minutes left to tie it up at four then Torey Krug broke in on a breakaway and finished a backhander through Alex Stalock's (34 saves, 5-3-1) five-hole to send the TD Garden into a drunken frenzy. It was Boston's first overtime win of the season and Minnesota fell to 0-3 in the extra session. In many ways, these two points felt stolen by the B's since they committed seven penalties which were basically all easy calls by the referees for utterly lazy mistakes (hooking, slashing, tripping, etc.). Much like their club, the Wild's power play is normally mediocre at best (ranked #18 in the NHL) but they did go 2-for-7. Conversely, Boston's power-play is ranked #2 in the league and while they only got three chances, they converted on the most crucial one with Krejci's tying goal.

With this final score that is straight out of the 80s or early 90s NHL, it seems odd to talk about the goaltenders but Stalock and Tuukka Rask (32 saves, 11-2-2) were both better than you would think. Rask saved his two best saves for crunch time too as he stopped Jason Zucker's breakaway late in the third with the Wild up 4-2 then he made an incredible toe save (in a full butterfly position) on defenseman Brad Hunt's slap shot in overtime. Did I mention that Boston is still unbeaten in regulation (9-0-4) at the Garden this season?

The Black and Gold weren't themselves from the start as Zucker gave Minnesota a 1-0 lead with a power play goal at 8:53 of the first period. He put in a rebound for his eighth goal of the season (tied with Zach Parise for the team lead) with assists to Hunt (who took the original shot) and Mats Zuccarello. Brad Marchand wrestled with Wild defenseman Matt Dumba to try to get his club emotionally charged. Boston actually had a super rare 3-on-0 but somehow they didn't score as Charlie McAvoy's shot was robbed by Stalock after Marchand unselfishly passed it to him. Note to Brad, McAvoy has zero goals this season so next time keep it for yourself! The fact that Boston only trailed 1-0 after the first period despite being outshot 15-10 and taking four penalties (leading to 3 power plays) was a pleasant surprise.

The B's appeared to find their balance in the second period as Jake DeBrusk tied it at 4:14 by tipping in Zdeno Chara's shot from the point. Brett Ritchie had the second assist on DeBrusk's fourth goal of the season. It remained knotted at one for exactly two minutes as Victor Rask (no relation as far as I know) had the good fortunate of having the puck go off his skate and past Tuukka. It was quickly reviewed but stood up since he didn't make a distinct kicking motion. Jared Spurgeon and Ryan Suter (who played a game-high 29:40!) had the assists on Victor's second goal of the season. Chara was called for a high-sticking double minor after he caught Zucker in the face and drew blood. Minnesota cashed in with a power play goal by Eric Staal at 14:26. He chopped in a loose puck by Tuukka for his seventh goal of the season, assisted by Suter and Zuccarello.

If the Wild led 3-1 after two periods, it might have been game over but they left the door open due to Marchand's ultra timely goal with 3.1 seconds left in the frame. Krug had taken a shot that went wide of everything but rimmed around to Marchand on the other side of the net. His 16th goal of the season was also assisted by Bergeron. That good fortune for the home team evaporated early in the third period as Kevin Fiala's shot/pass was deflected past Rask by none other than Krug. Yikes, Fiala's fifth goal of the season was unassisted and made it 4-2 Minnesota at 5:19. This all set the stage for a Toronto-like collapse by Minnesota in crunch time: Krejci's first goal at 18:05 was from the doorstep where he was assisted by Bergeron and DeBrusk. The next one 48 seconds later took a bit more skill as he cranked a one-timer from Bergeron and Krug for his fourth goal of the season. Krejci has been back on the second line since Bergeron returned on Thursday but he still has 13 points (4 goals, 9 assists) in his last 12 games.

The seas parted for Krug to go from one end of the rink to another on the game-winning goal at 2:41. Bergeron (6 goals and 10 assists in his last 11 games) and Marchand (6 goals & 5 assists in his last 7 games) obviously had the assists on his third goal of the season and undoubtedly one of the most memorable of his career/life. Jaroslav Halak was originally slated to start this game for the Bruins but he showed up sick this afternoon so Rask got the start at the last-minute.

This is a really busy stretch for the B's with four games in seven days. No practice tomorrow so they'll be back on the ice Monday morning before traveling to Montreal (11-7-5) for Tuesday's game (7, NESN) followed by Wednesday's (7, NESN) contest in Ottawa (11-11-1). The NHL must have forgotten how many Americans are on the Bruins these days since they are right back to work on Friday (1, NBC)-the day after Thanksgiving-against the Rangers (10-9-2). Rest up guys, you are going to need it to survive until December.

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