You have to think that if Arizona was ever going to break that ugly drought (their last two points vs. Boston came back on Oct. 9, 2010 in Prague!), the stars were aligned to do just that this evening. The B's have been great on home ice (11-3-0) but they got off to a slow start in this one as Nick Schmaltz made it 1-0 with a power play goal at 12:22 of the first period. The former Blackhawk's shot went off Tuukka Rask (30 saves, 8th win of the season), off a post and then in for his sixth goal of the season. Oliver Ekman-Larsson and BU's Clayton Keller provided the assists on the bizarre goal. While that tally was being announced, the Coyotes doubled their lead as Nick Cousins beat Rask to the shortside 40 seconds later. His third goal of the season was assisted by Alex Goligoski and Josh Archibald as the Garden crowd started to grow a bit restless. If things couldn't get any worse in the first period for the B's, David Backes took an Ekman-Larsson skate blade to the face which forced him to quickly exit the ice and head to the dressing room for some serious repairs.
Arizona has the top penalty-kill unit in the league which is accentuated by the fact that they've scored a whopping 11 shorthanded goals (!). To give you some context on that absurd number, the next closest team is Calgary (6) while Boston has only one this entire campaign. As such, Boston's power play (which came into the contest ranked 6th in the NHL) went 0-for-3 but that hardly mattered as they reeled off four even strength goals in the blink of an eye. Danton Heinen of all people got the comeback started for the Bruins with a nifty goal at 8:40 of the second period. Jacob Forsbacka Karlsson gave him a sweet backhand saucer pass that he settled with his skate like a soccer player then knocked the puck in past Darcy Kuemper (22 saves). The new look third line's other member Ryan Donato had the secondary assist on Heinen's fourth goal of the season. 33 seconds later on the following shift, David Pastrnak tied it with a beautiful net drive that ended with him tapping in a pass from Brad Marchand with Krejci picking up the other helper on Pastrnak's team-leading 21st goal of the season. 2:18 after that, the first line struck again as Marchand tipped in a slap pass from Pastrnak. Krejci had the second assist on Marchand's ninth goal of the season. Three goals in 2:51 was cool but one more was even better: Marchand banged in a loose puck at 13:30 (becoming the 3rd Bruin with double-digit goals) a nanosecond before getting knocked over with Krejci and Pastrnak obviously getting the assists.
Krejci was playing in his 800th NHL game while Arizona defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson reached the 700 game mark as well. Meanwhile, Coyotes left wing Michael Bunting was competing in his inaugural NHL game and he made it a particularly memorable moment with a goal that cut it to 4-3 Bruins at 15:00 of the second period. Truth be told, it was a save that Rask has to make but we'll forgive him since he came up with some bigger ones later on. That's right, there were a total of five goals in 6:20 of game time so naturally, these clubs followed it up with a scoreless third period. Arizona pressed for the tying goal in the third, outshooting Boston 9-5 in the frame but the B's held on despite a late tripping call on John Moore. McAvoy blocked a shot from his fellow Terrier Keller and Krejci hit the post with a shot that would have clinched it but he also had a key blocked shot of his own in crunch time.
With their three wins in a row, the B's earned six points in the past four days which I'd imagine is more than you or I or anyone else that we know has accomplished since Saturday. A stat that perfectly illustrates this team's collective mental toughness is that they improved to 5-1-1 in Game 3s of three games in four nights this season. They have ten more sets throughout 2018-19 so I doubt that absurd percentage will hold but still, can we just appreciate that for a second? The guys get tomorrow off which I'd say that they've earned before they are back at practice on Thursday and then they fly to Pittsburgh for Friday's (7, NESN) meeting with the Penguins (13-10-6). Boston has matched up well with Pittsburgh for years (yes during the Cup runs) and the Pens were a disaster to start this season before recently getting their shit together (6-2-2 in their last 10 games). The Bruins' next home game is on Sunday (5, NESN) vs. Buffalo (18-9-4) who is two points ahead of them in the Atlantic Division for third-place. Patriots-Steelers of course starts at 4:25 pm so make sure that your DVR and/or the last button on your remote is working properly since you'll be doing double-duty on Sunday night.
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