The Boston Bruins hadn’t trailed by two goals in a game since January 16 in a 4-3 road loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. Boston spotted the visiting Carolina Hurricanes a 2-0 lead on Tuesday night at TD Garden, rallying to take a third period lead and eventually winning a thriller 4-3 in overtime on a goal by David Krejci. The win extends the Bruins points streak without a regulation loss to 17 games.
Sebastian Aho scored the first two goals of the game, at 6:30 of the first and 1:10 of the second to make it 2-0 Hurricanes, silencing the sold out crowd in Boston. The Bruins though would rally to tie it before the end of the second. Chris Wagner got Boston on the board at 12:28, before Jake Debrusk got the equalizer at 18:12 to knot things up 2-2. For Debrusk, it was his 22nd goal of the season. Early in the third period, two big playmakers for the Bruins were at it again to give the hosts their first lead of the night while on the penalty kill. Brad Marchand made a steal at his own blue line and skated down the right side on a 2 on 1 breakout with Patrice Bergeron. Marchand waited and slowed up as Bergeron skated in near the slot, then sent a perfect pass tape to tape to Bergeron who one timed it from in between the two faceoff dots to make it 3-2 with the shorthanded marker at 2:45. Justin Williams though scored to send the game into overtime later in the third when he tipped a point shot past Bruins goalie Jaroslav Halak at 12:17 to make it 3-3. In overtime, Krejci began and ended a rush that sent the home fans home happy. Krejci skated in to the left of Carolina goalie Curtis McElhinney, and took a shot that was kicked out and deflected away in behind the net. Debrusk then came in and got a steal from a ‘Canes defenseman, and twirled in behind the cage out to the front to the right of McElhinney. Debrusk sent a pass over to Krejci who was in the slot and in one motion faked a shot to the right, and came back left and deposited it into a half empty cage at 1:46 for the game winner.
Halak got the win in net for the 40-17-9 Bruins making 34 saves. McElhinney took the loss and also stopped 34 shots. Carolina was 0-5 with the powerplay, while Boston was 0-1. The Hurricanes are now 36-23-7. Both Krejci and Debrusk recorded two points with a goal and an assist each. Boston can match their points streak of 18 consecutive that they set in 1968-69 season with a win at home at 7 pm Thursday against Florida. Boston also had a 23 game streak in the 1940-41 season in which they are fourth on the list for. The NHL record is 35 by the Philadelphia Flyers in the 1979-80 season.
