The Bruins have long maintained the position that the record for regular season wins doesn’t matter at all to them.
But now? They might as well go for it, especially if they can keep winning while resting their vets.
The B’s recorded win No. 60 on Sunday, in the most uncharacteristic and unconventional way. The B’s now need to win three of their final five games to set the record.
The B’s blew a 3-0 lead, then had what they thought was an overtime game-winner taken off the board. But Charlie Coyle scored the only goal of the shootout and Linus Ullmark punctuated the 4-3 win over the St. Louis Blues with a glove snare of a Brayden Schenn wrister to end it.
The B’s took a 3-0 lead midway through the second period, but they gave the Blues some life with a late second period goal and then old friend Torey Krug got St. Louis to within a goal at 9:47 of the third. Brandon Saad split the B’s defense and his shot yielded a rebound off Ullmark for Krug to put back.
The B’s then had to kill off 5-on-3 for 1:34, which they were able to do, keeping the Blues on the outside for the most part.
But with an extra skater on in the final minute, Jordan Kyrou tied the game with a wrist shot over Ullmark’s glove arm with 24.6 seconds left in regulation, his second of the game.
The B’s then thought they’d won the game in overtime when Dmitry Orlov blasted a slapper past Jordn Binnington, but a review showed David Pastrnak was offside.
Binnington would stop Brad Marchand on a clean breakaway and then Pastrnak on a partial break to get it to the shootout.
At first, this looked like it would be a walk-in-the-park win for the B’s.
After the B’s beat the Penguins without Patrice Bergeron on Saturday, coach Jim Montgomery placed a couple more top players to the shelf. While Bergeron remained out, David Krejci (lower body) and Charlie McAvoy were given Sunday off, too.
It didn’t matter much.
As they did in Pittsburgh, the B’s scored the first goal of the game early on. Jake DeBrusk swooped in to grab a loose puck in the defensive slot and took off on a 2-on-1 with Trent Frederic, who was getting a chance to a center a line with the top two pivots out. DeBrusk chose to take the shot, which Jordan Binnington stopped but he gave up a fat rebound. Frederic was there to knock it home, but his shot grazed DeBrusk’s stick. DeBrusk was credited with his 25th goal of the season at 5:51.
With two goals in 44 seconds in the second period, the B’s gained some comfort.
The first one came on the B’s suddenly resurgent power play. After the PP notched two goals in Pittsburgh, the man-advantage stretched the lead to 2-0 at 7:18. David Pastrnak showed off his goalscoring prowess on Saturday, he flashed his playmaking ability when he sent a beautiful no-look pass to Tyler Bertuzzi, who only had to let the puck bounce off his skates for his seventh of the season. It was the B’s third PP goal in two games.
Oskar Steen, the beneficiary of the B’s early clinching, scored his first goal of the season in his second game with the big club. On a 3-on-2, Frederic fed A.J. Greer on the left wing and Greer took a hard wrist shot that produced another big rebound for Steen to bury.
St. Louis coach Craig Berube, whose team got smoked 6-1 in Nashville on Saturday, called his timeout to stop the bleeding. And the B’s helped them keep it competitive in the waning seconds of the period.
In the waning second, the B’s top line got caught deep in the offensive zone, giving St. Louis an odd-man rush. With eight seconds left in the period, Jordan Kyrou snapped his 35th goal past Ullmark to give the Blues some semblance of life going into the third.
