BOSTON – The Bruins once again didn’t have a great start or a particularly solid, consistent effort, but they battled long and hard enough to get the good result.
It took into a little over a minute into the extra session, but the Bruins finally came away with a 4-3 overtime win over the Carolina Hurricanes at TD Garden to snap a two-game losing streak. It was Charlie McAvoy that led an odd-man rush with Brad Marchand, looked off the top goal-scorer and then buried a wrist shot over Scott Darling to seal the deal for the Black and Gold.
For a team entering a rough part of the schedule and without Patrice Bergeron for at least the next few weeks, it was exactly the kind of gritty win that the Bruins are going to need more of moving forward.
The Hurricanes stormed the Bruins with a couple of power play goals in the first period from Brock McGinn and Teuvo Teravainen sandwiched around Rick Nash’s first goal as a member of the Boston Bruins. That gave the Canes a 2-1 lead that was extended to 3-1 when a defensive breakdown opened up a path to the night for Sebastian Aho to score his 22nd goal of the season.
Once again the new guys were a factor for the Black and Gold as Tommy Wingels won a race to the puck in front of the Carolina net, and dropped a pass to a dangling Riley Nash that maneuvered around Scott Darling for his career-high 11th goal of the season.
That was the score until the second period when Wingels continued his grand entrance to the Black and Gold with a sniper shot from the face-off circle that tied everything up at three apiece.