OTTAWA — David Pastrnak had gone pointless in his last four games and was held off the scoresheet for three periods in Ottawa Saturday against the Senators, and it wasn’t sitting well.
How quickly things can change for the better.
Pastrnak scored on a one-timer off a cross-ice feed from Taylor Hall at 2:42 of overtime to give the Boston Bruins a 3-2 win over the Ottawa Senators.
“Listen, every player wants to score in overtime, and I think he needed that,” Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. “He’s getting frustrated with his opportunities, or lack of. For a goal scorer, you don’t want to go too long.”
Jake DeBrusk and Brandon Carlo scored for the Bruins in regulation (28-17-4) who snapped a two-game losing streak. Jeremy Swayman made 29 saves.
Tim Stutzle and Nick Holden also tallied for the Senators (18-25-5), who got a 30-save performance from Anton Forsberg in defeat.
Tyler Ennis almost tied the game for the Senators in the sixth minute of the third period, but while on the power play and an empty net staring him in the face, Ennis hit the post and seconds later Swayman made a glove save off Ennis.
Eventually Holden did tie the game for Ottawa as his shot from the slot beat Swayman with a crowd in front at 16:06 of the third to force overtime.
“I thought we were better getting into shooting lanes. Not as many pucks travelled to the net, obviously. The last goal their (defenceman) beat us up the ice so that’s not a shooting lane issue, but I thought we did a better job with that," Cassidy said.
The Senators got off to a much better start than one week earlier when they were outshot 22-8 in the first period by the Bruins, who scored 45 seconds into the game. In the first period Saturday, the Senators were again unable to score, but neither were the Bruins and the shots were a much more respectable 11-9 in favour of Boston.
“A lot of things I was happy with. I thought we turned the puck over too much, but compete level was really high,” Senators coach D.J. Smith said.
“That was probably one of the most physical games in the last month maybe. Big hits. Fighting for the puck. There wasn’t a lot of room out there. It was a real game tonight.”
The Bruins eventually opened the scoring at 2:37 of the second period when DeBrusk backhanded the puck out of midair and put a one-hopper past Forsberg for a 1-0 lead.
The Senators got that one back just over four minutes later as Stutzle collected a rebound off an Artem Zub point shot that was tipped by Austin Watson and had an empty net to shoot at with Swayman out of position.
Later in the period the Senators had three great scoring chances as they kept the puck in the Bruins end for almost the entirety of a two-minute, four-on-four. Stutzle, Brady Tkachuk and Nick Paul all nearly gave the Senators the lead during that stretch but were unable to beat Swayman.
“There were a lot of great efforts tonight,” Tkachuk said.
“That’s a good team and they’ve been a good team for a bunch of years now, so it was fun to be part of that.”
Carlo, who was a game time decision after cutting his arm in the morning skate, gave the Bruins a 2-1 lead with just over a minute to play in the period. Forsberg dove out to try and cover the puck at the top of the crease but pushed the puck right onto the stick of Carlo who had an empty net to shoot at.
Luckily the cut, while deep, didn’t cause severe damage.
“I just fell on the ice right in front of the net and as I was going down I caught my forearm I guess you would say,” explained Carlo. ”Luckily it was a nice clean cut in the right spot and didn’t reach all the way to the muscle, so that was good.”
Notes: Senators forward Tim Stutzle played in his 100th NHL game Saturday, all with the Senators. ... Bruins forward Tomas Nosek played in his 300th NHL game and 43rd with the Bruins. … G Matt Murray, F Clark Bishop and D Dillon Heatherington were scratches for the Senators Saturday. F Brad Marchand and Anton Blidh along with D Derek Forbot were scratches for the Bruins. Marchand was serving the fifth of a six-game suspension. … The Senators host the New York Rangers Sunday and the Bruins host the Colorado Avalanche Monday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 19, 2022.
Darren Desaulniers, The Canadian Press