McAvoy lifts B’s in thriller
Nets winner in OT to snap Blues’ win streak at 9
The Bruins’ power play (0-for-2) failed them again, and they allowed another last-second goal that could have been crushing.
But it just didn’t matter. The B’s put forth one of their best defensive efforts in the last couple of weeks against the NHL’s hottest team and beat the St. Louis Blues, 3-2, in overtime at the Enterprise Center on Tuesday night.
bruins blues
3 2
Charlie McAvoy scored 48 seconds into OT to lift the B’s to victory, snapping the Blues’ nine-game win streak. Off the rush, Charlie Coyle may have had Jake DeBrusk on a backdoor play but elected to take it behind the Blues and DeBrusk followed him there. DeBrusk, who had scored earlier in the game, beat Vladimir Tarasenko for the puck. He found McAvoy in the high slot and the defenseman ripped a shot over goalie Ville Husso’s blocker for the winner.
“I think I was headed to the bench and I did a double-check and saw we had the puck. Then I was just alone in the slot, so it all worked out. JD and Chuckie are great at getting pucks and working. It was fortunate for us to get the extra point there,” said McAvoy.
The B’s outshot the Blues, 35-22, thwarting one of the most explosive offenses in the league. And they didn’t let a Blues goal in the waning seconds of what had been a dominant second period for the B’s knock them off course.
“I thought we carried the game, honestly,” said McAvoy. “If we play like that on most nights, we’re going to get the result. It was obviously unfortunate they scored with two seconds left in the second. But our mindset was ‘Let’s not let that change our game or the momentum we have and how we feel we’re playing tonight as a whole.’ I thought we did well to get the result.”
The Blues took a 1-0 lead on a first-period power play, but not before the B’s pushed their man-advantage futility streak to 0-for-26. This PP was an abbreviated one because Mike Reilly cut it in half with yet another stick foul. It was the sixth stick penalty in as many games for Reilly, who could be making himself the lead candidate for coming out of the lineup when Hampus Lindholm returns.
St. Louis did not score on that first power play, but the Blues showed off what has made them the second-best power play in the league on their second chance. After McAvoy was called for hooking, the Blues displayed some dizzying puck movement, culminating with
Tarasenko feeding Pavel Buchnevich for a quick onetimer from the slot.
The Blues nearly made it 2-0 when a turnover led to a quick 2-on-0, but Jeremy Swayman made a solid blocker save on Brayden Schenn.
The Blues may be more offensive-minded now than they were when they hoisted the Stanley Cup on Garden ice in 2019, but they can still be edgy. Late in the first, Ivan Barbashev delivered a high hit on Taylor Hall that was called for roughing, but the B’s lost the power play when Curtis Lazar went after Barbashev, drawing an unsportsmanlike conduct call. With the way the B’s power play was going, it’s a good bet coach Bruce Cassidy was fine with Lazar sticking up for Hall.
The B’s had an 11-8 shot advantage in the first, but they didn’t really test Husso.
But they would cash in on their first really good chance at 1:33. DeBrusk tried a wraparound that Husso stopped, but the puck came right back to DeBrusk. With Husso not sure where the puck was, DeBrusk snapped it top shelf for his 23rd of the year. That ended a fourgame pointless streak for DeBrusk.
And then Hall would get a little revenge to give the B’s the lead at 9:44. Old friend Torey Krug turned the puck over to Erik Haula, who got it to Derek Forbort at the left point. Forbort flipped a wrister toward the net that Hall deflected past Husso for his 17th of the year. That snapped an eight-game goalless skid for Hall.
The B’s were dominating the second period, outshooting the Blues 17-6 and only several solid Husso stops kept the B’s from extending their lead. It looked like all of that would come undone when Forbort took a tripping penalty with three minutes left, but the B’s came up with a strong kill.
So they were out of the woods, right? Wrong. With the seconds ticking off the clock, the Blues finally won the puck along the boards after a lengthy battle with a few seconds left in the period. From the blue line, Tarasenko flung a soft backhander toward the net and Robert Thomas made a terrific tip to beat Swayman with 2.4 seconds left in the period for yet another last-minute goal, the 25th they’ve allowed this season.
It was a new game going into the third and both teams clamped down defensively. But in OT, Coyle won the opening faceoff and the B’s never gave up the puck until it was behind Husso.