Bruins lose lead late in regulation, then beat Canadiens in OT

‘It was a duel of two of best goaltenders around, so it was nice to see him win this duel’

The Bruins did not solve their long-term problem of a lack of scoring last night but, thanks in great part to Tuukka Rask, they did address the desperate need for a win.
And the Montreal Canadiens, of course, made the B’s sweat for it.
After the Canadiens tied the game with a Paul Byron goal with 3:12 left in regulation, Ryan Spooner scored with 1:40 left in overtime to lift the Bruins to a 2-1 victory at the Bell Centre.
One B’s would-be goal already had been disallowed in OT, and rightly so, as video replay showed David Pastrnak’s contact with Montreal goalie Carey Price allowed David Krejci to score.
On Spooner’s game-winner, the NHL’s hockey operations in Toronto initiated a review for Brad Marchand possibly being offside well before the goal, but it was ruled inconclusive and the Bruins had their two points, snapping a three-game losing streak.
Though it was a low-scoring affair, the game did not resemble the many snoozers we’ve seen this season. Rask (29 saves) outdueled Price (27) while the emotions that spilled over made the game feel like an actual Bruins-Habs rivalry game.
“It was a duel of two of the best goaltenders around, so it was nice to see him win this duel and stand tall for us,” B’s coach Claude Julien said. “The other guy did the same thing for his team, so that’s why it was a close game. Both goaltenders were great and, in the end, I’d like to say ours was better.”
Things got nasty midway through the first period. Alexei Emelin took out Pastrnak along the boards and, 20 seconds later, Torey Krug obliterated Andrew Shaw with a neutral zone hit as the two were going for the puck. There was no penalty on either hits, though Krug could hear from the league on his because of the head contact. Krug would later accept Brendan Gallagher’s invitation to fight.
There wasn’t as much blood-letting as there would have been in the past, but the passion made the game infinitely more enjoyable to watch.
“The intensity, the energy, the physicality was definitely there,” Patrice Bergeron said. “This building’s always fun to play in and I thought it was a great game of hockey.”
Rask and Price kept it scoreless in the first 38:55 of the game, with Rask making the stops with a higher degree of difficulty. Montreal was really pushing in the second period, but Rask first stoned Shaw on a backdoor play and then, on a 2-on-1, made a tremendous double-stack pad save on Tomas Plekanec.
“You’ve got to keep some old school in your game. I’ll probably get clipped on video by our goalie coach (Bob Essensa) because I was late or something,” Rask said with a grin.
“But that was a good save. That’s the only way you make highlights these days.”
The B’s killed off all five Montreal power plays (the visitors were afforded just one man advantage) and took the first lead of the game with 1:05 left in the second period when Austin Czarnik celebrated his 24th birthday by beating Price on a shortside wrister. He had a similar chance earlier in the period.
“The last time he got it with his stick up high, so I just thought I’d shoot it low and try and get it on net and just create something there,” Czarnik said. “It just went in.”
It looked like that goal might stand up, but the Canadiens evened the score late. Torrey Mitchell fanned on a shot from the slot but the loose puck squirted to Byron, who swept it in behind Rask.
Overtime was a thriller. At one point, Rask came way out to the halfwall to play the puck and prevent a 2-on-0, and he took a pretty good hit from Mitchell in the process.
Price, meanwhile, made great stops on clean break-ins by Brad Marchand and Pastrnak just before Krejci’s nullified
goal.
After an extended stay in the Montreal zone, Krug sprung Spooner for a clean look, and Spooner slipped a forehand shot through Price’s pads for the winner.
For Spooner, who has been sliding down the depth chart, it was his first goal since November 12.
“It felt great,” Spooner said.
“The offense in the last 15 games, we haven’t been able to get a lot. I’m happy for that and happy we won.”

RESULTS
Edmonton                3 Winnipeg             2       
Chicago                    3 Dallas                     1       
Colorado                  3 Toronto                 1       
NY Rangers             5 New Jersey         0       
Minnesota               3 St. Louis                 1       
Philadelphia            1 Detroit         0 (OT)
Washington            3 Vancouver           0       
Anaheim                  5 Ottawa                   1