FINAL SCORE: Bruins 5, Kings 4 (OT)
IN BRIEF: Patrice Bergeron scored on a power play in overtime to give the Bruins a 5-4 victory over the Los Angeles Kings in a Saturday matinee at TD Garden. After trailing 2-1 entering the third period, the Bruins scored three unanswered goals to take a 4-2 lead before L.A. came back to tie it a 4 and send it to OT. BOX SCORE
BRUINS RECORD: 30-17-8, 68 points, tied for third in the Atlantic Division with the Montreal Canadiens.
HIGHLIGHTS:
BERGERON PREGAME TRIBUTE VIDEO:
AND THEN DOING BERGERON THINGS - FEEDING McAVOY TO PUT B'S ON BOARD:
THE OT WINNER:
FROM JOE HAGGERTY:
*The 10th career 20-goal season for Bergeron, who gets the top corner snipe in OT on the day he was honored with a great pregame tribute video and a roomful of gifts for playing in his 1,000th game earlier in the week. He is just too damn perfect. Perfect Patrice finished with a goal and three points along with a plus-3 rating, had a team-high seven shots on net and won 13-of-24 face-offs on his way to getting the First Star of the Game.
Boston Bruins
*Danton Heinen finished with a goal and an assist in 15:01 of ice time and continues to look like a much-improved player skating on the top line with Bergeron and Brad Marchand. It was Heinen that helped spearhead a third-period comeback when he shoveled the rebound of a Charlie McAvoy shot back into the net in the final 20 minutes to help the Bruins earn the OT win. Heinen also had a strong shift in the second period that eventually led to Bergeron feeding McAvoy for Boston’s first score of the game. It remains to be seen if he’s being showcased to raise his trade value or if this is just the spot where the B's think he can succeed, but Heinen is playing his best hockey of the season.
*Good to see McAvoy picking up the offensive pace in this one. McAvoy cut to the net and finished off a great pass from Patrice Bergeron for Boston’s first goal and has three shots on net, five shot attempts and a couple of hits in 14:22 of ice time after the first two periods. Some of it might be about playing the guy he’s modeled his game after in LA defenseman Drew Doughty, but some of it is also about McAvoy perhaps starting to show a little more urgency in his game when it comes to creating offensively for a B’s team that desperately needs secondary offense. McAvoy also then picked up an assist on Danton Heinen’s goal in the third period as well when the Bruins staged their big comeback entering things own a goal.
*Great tribute video from the Bruins honoring Patrice Bergeron for his 1,000th game played prior to puck drop. Plenty of Bruins players past and present were shown testifying to how great Bergeron is as a person as well as Claude Julien calling No. 37 “the best two-way player I ever coached.” Of note were many Bruins players from the 2011 Stanley Cup team including Mark Recchi, Shawn Thornton, Chris Kelly, Adam McQuaid and Johnny Boychuk among others. David Ortiz, Julian Edelman and Paul Pierce all got into the act as well to congratulate one of Boston’s iconic athletes.
*The Bruins came in 1-14-2 when trailing after two periods this season. Wow, that is an indictment on how positively “meh” they’ve been in third periods, whether it’s coming back, or simply locking down leads entering the final 20 minutes. The blown leads have been an issue lately. Almost on cue the Bruins came back and scored three goals in the third to take a lead and then blew that lead later in prime third-period fashion.
UP NEXT:
Vs. Avalanche, Sunday, 3 p.m. NESN
Vs. Blackhawks, Tuesday, 7 p.m., NESN
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