Linus Ullmark made franchise history for a second time Tuesday night, recording a career-high and franchise best 54 saves and Charlie McAvoy scored with five seconds left in overtime to give the Boston Bruins a 4-3 win over the Calgary Flames at Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta Canada.
Ullmark, who set history in a Saturday win over Vancouver by becoming the first Boston goalie to score a goal when he potted one into an empty net, had to quite literally stand on his head on Tuesday night. The Bruins also set a record with the worst shot differential in team history. Despite being outshot 19-5 in the first period, newly acquired defenseman Dmitry Orlov scored at 4:47 and 13:39 for a 2-0 lead. Calgary scored the next three goals in a row with a 32-12 shot advantage for the remainder of regulation, as Blake Coleman scored in the second and Dillon Dube and Jonathan Huberdeau tallied 1:17 apart in the third to make it 3-2 Flames. Pavel Zacha sent it to overtime for the B’s with a goal at 14:07 of that third period on the powerplay off an assist from Orlov. The game winner in overtime started with a rush down the left wing by Brad Marchand, who lost control of it but got it back behind the Calgary net. Marchand sent a quick pass to Patrice Bergeron in the low slot, who sent it over to McAvoy in the left faceoff circle for a one-timer that found the net and extended the Boston win streak to eight games.
Ullmark is now 31-4-1 on the season, as he is the clear favorite to take home the Vezina Trophy. He is just the second Boston goalie in history to have at least 50 saves in a game, the other one being Tim Thomas who stopped 52 back in 2011. Orlov had the two goals and one assist, and Bergeron along with Jake Debrusk had two assists each as they improve on their NHL best record at 47-8-5. Jacob Markstrom played the first 43:29 in net for Calgary and stopped 13 of 15 shots, while Dan Vladar took over and stopped three of five in relief as the Flames drop to 27-21-13. The Bruins return home to play Buffalo on Thursday night.
Recap by Chris Lessner
