BOSTON — The Bruins blew another two-goal lead and time was running out on their fifth power-play when they finally broke through in timely fashion.
With a second 4-on-3 power-play on overtime, Taylor Hall one-timed a David Pastrnak pass past Marc Andre-Fleury with 10.1 seconds left to lift the B’s to a 4-3 OT victory at the Garden on Saturday.
Fleury had been brilliant in OT, but he had little chance on the Hall shot.
The Wild, who were down 3-1 late in the second period, had tied it up with 4:31 left in the third period when Jared Spurgeon’s backhander eluded Linus Ullmark.
The B’s own struggling power play put them on the chase quickly, but not for long, as they would take a 2-1 lead into the first intermission.
They started the game with some buzz off the tremendous ovation for Zdeno Chara, who took part in the ceremonial puck drop with his two sons after a video tribute that got the crowd into it early. The B’s earned the first power play of the game just 1:05 in, but it blew up on them when David Krejci turned the puck over at the offensive blue line. Brandon Duhaime went the other way and beat Ullmark on a breakaway at 1:55.
But just after Joel Eriksson Ek came out of the box, the B’s Nick Foligno beat Fleury with a snipe from the left circle at 3:12. After managing two goals in 64 games last year, it was Foligno’s third goal in six games this year.
Krejci would make up for his turnover later in the period when he made a terrific cross-ice pass to Hall flying up the right wing. Fleury stopped Hall’s backhander, but Pastrnak crashed the net and cashed in the loose change at 12:45.
The B’s got another power play late in the period, but again the first unit had its difficulties. And though the second unit created more – Pavel Zacha was stoned on a great Fleury save – that group also gave up a partial break. This time, Ullmark was able to poke the puck off Marcus Foligno’s stick before he could get a shot off.
The B’s stretched their lead to two goals at 6:41 of the second period when Hampus Lindholm followed up a block of his own shot and ripped a wrister over Fleury’s glove shoulder.
It looked like the B’s were ready to run away with this one and they had a chance to put the hammer down when Matt Boldy took a delay penalty midway through the period. But the B’s again came up empty.
Still, they were putting in their best checking performance of the young season, giving the Wild very little, but things tightened up when Krejci took an offensive zone penalty. On the advantage, Boldy tipped home a Mats Zuccarello shot at 15:58 and the Wild were within a goal going into the third period.
It appeared the Wild tied it up on a power play at 14:15 but it was taken off the board when it was ruled that Boldy kicked the puck into the net, a somewhat obvious call.
That was the start of a string of three straight Bruin penalties which produced a pair of 5-on-3s for Minnesota, one that lasted 14 seconds and the second that went for 58 seconds, but the B’s somehow emerged unscathed. It helped that Ullmark came up with a big save on Eriksson Ek on a clean break-in.
Fleury also came up with a breakaway stop on Connor Clifton when he jumped out of the penalty box.
