The Edmonton Oilers got a game winning goal from Darnell Nurse with 4:49 left in the third period, rallying from a 2-0 deficit after one period to take a 3-2 win over the Boston Bruins at TD Garden in Boston on Thursday night.
Brad Marchand opened the scoring on the first shot on goal on the night for Boston. Marchand took an indirect pass off the boards, and snapped a wrist shot past Stuart Skinner from the left faceoff dot for a 1-0 lead 3:51 into the first period. After Edmonton couldn’t get the puck out of their own zone in the last few seconds of the opening 20 minutes, David Pastrnak received a pass from David Krejci and fired home his 45th goal of the season with just three-tenths of a second left for a 2-0 Bruins advantage. The Oilers took over from there, as Evan Bouchard had the lone tally of the second to cut it to 2-1. The guests would tie it on a nice play by former University of Maine winger Devin Shore, as he intercepted a Boston clearing pass and found Ryan McLeod who fired it in from the low slot past another former Black Bear Jeremy Swayman at 6:08 of the third period to even it 2-2. The winner from Nurse was a wrist shot from near the boards on the left wing that found its way into the net at 15:11. The Bruins pulled Swayman late for an extra attacker, but couldn’t find the equalizer as their 10 game win streak was snapped.
Pastrnak had a goal and an assist in the loss, and Swayman stopped 19 shots in net. Boston was looking to clinch a playoff spot and make some history with a win and some help, but wasn’t meant to be on this night. Skinner had 26 saves in the win for Edmonton, who improves to 36-22-8 and are just four points out of first place in the Western Conference. The Bruins (49-9-5) will stay at home and host the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday at 1 p.m.
Recap by Chris Lessner
