Bruins battle back to top Jets 5-4

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This article was published 09/01/2020 (2068 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BOSTON – It was there for the taking, an impressive triumph over an elite NHL opponent that would have put the punctuation mark on an already successful road trip. But then it all came undone in the blink of an eye.

David Pastrnak’s third goal of the game with just under eight minutes left tied it, and Jake DeBrusk’s second of the night just 33 seconds later proved to be the winner as the Boston Bruins rallied for a 5-4 victory over the Winnipeg Jets Thursday night at TD Center.

“We were about 10 minutes away from it being a great road trip. So a little bit of a sour taste right now,” said forward Andrew Copp.

Indeed, the Jets were looking for a third straight win to close out a tough stretch of four games in six nights away from home. Instead, they finish 2-1-1 on the journey, and fall to 24-17-4 overall on the season.

Boston improves to 26-8-11, trailing only the Washington Capitals for top spot in the league.

“I don’t know, going into this game, if we would have said we were going to put four (goals) up there, I would have taken that. I don’t think we had enough jump to skate the way we were going to need to skate,” said Jets coach Paul Maurice.

“It’s an unusually played game. There was some real good stuff and then some stuff that looked like you were starting to drag a little bit. Some cleans plays that we can complete that we couldn’t. Some tough breaks.”

Winnipeg arrived in the wee hours of the morning after a hard-fought 4-3 overtime victory over Toronto on Wednesday. But any thought they might be suffering from tired legs were quickly put to rest.

Kyle Connor opened the scoring 7:35 into the game with a great individual effort, going through Boston defenceman Torey Krug and beating Bruins goalie Jaroslav Halak with a backhander for his 22nd of the season.

Pastrnak, the NHL’s leading goal scorer, got his big night started by tying it at 17:14 of the opening frame on a shot that beat Jets backup goalie Laurent Brossoit.

“He’s a tremendous player, and he showed that again (Thursday night),” said Brossoit. 

Copp restored Winnipeg’s lead six minutes into the second period, tipping home a Josh Morrissey shot on the power play for his seventh of the year. It was the 100th point of Copp’s career as he skated in his 330th game.

“The next hundred better come a hell of a lot faster than the first 100,” said Copp.

Pastrnak tied it once again at 9:41, needing just five seconds to capitalize on a Blake Wheeler tripping penalty on a set play right off the faceoff.

“The PK one was probably my bad. I started to make a read that was the wrong read. So that one’s probably my bad. They run a lot of faceoff plays. I don’t think we got burned by any of the fancy ones. We just got burned by the simple ones,” said Copp.

DeBrusk gave the Bruins their first lead of the night at 18:49, blocking a Luca Sbisa shot and instantly turning it into a breakaway, which he scored on. But the Jets rapidly-improving power play responded with eight seconds left in the period, as a Neal Pionk shot made it through traffic for his fourth of the year.

“I liked the way we are shooting the puck now on the power play. The shot from the top, when it needs to be, it’s s pretty dangerous. We would have liked to have gotten out there a few more times,” Maurice said of the unit, which finished two-for-two.

Winnipeg jumped back in front at 7:50 of the third period, with Mark Scheifele banking a puck in off Halak for his 22nd of the year, continuing a torrid streak in which he has 13 goals and 27 points in the last 18 games.

But just when it looked like they might sneak away with two points, it all came undone. 

“Obviously back to back, coming into a tough building, we wanted to keep it tight. Ended up being a high scoring game. I thought we had them in the third period. Just comes down to being sharp with the little things, blocking shots. We could have had that win,” said defenceman Dmitry Kulikov, who returned from an 18-game injury absence and recorded an assist. 

A poor line change proved costly on the 4-4 goal, with Tucker Poolman and three forwards coming off at once, leaving Josh Morrissey all alone to fend off an odd-man rush that ended with Pastrnak’s 35th of the year at 11:13. The hats rained down from the fans.

“Poolman took a stick to the ribs pretty good. We didn’t need the whole forward line coming off, obviously. But we were down a D man,” Maurice explained.

Once they were cleaned off the ice, DeBrusk struck again at 11:46, perfectly tipping a Charlie McAvoy shot for what proved to be the game-winner.

Shots ended up 36-21 in favour of the Bruins. 

“I felt good. Felt pretty sharp. Saw the puck well, moving well. They’ve just got a lot of firepower and I guess it wasn’t enough,” Brossoit said of his 10th start of the season. 

The Jets, who remain in a Western Conference wildcard playoff spot, begin a three-game homestand on Sunday afternoon against Nashville. Visits from Vancouver and Tampa Bay follow later in the week.

mike.mcintyre@freepreess.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg