Here’s What We Learned in the B’s 2-1 overtime win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday night at the PNC Center.
1) One can’t underscore the importance of getting the two points for the Black and Gold. The Ottawa Senators lost in regulation to the Florida Panthers, and the Bruins took a three-point lead in the ROW (regulation/overtime wins) category that is the first tiebreaker for the playoffs should it come down to that. The Bruins now have a three-point lead in the playoff race for the second wild card spot over Ottawa, and continue to closely trail both the Detroit Red Wings and Washington Capitals by three points as well. The Bruins needed to right the ship this weekend if they wanted to control their own destiny for the postseason, and now they have done that thanks to their own winning level of play, and the largesse of the Sens suddenly falling back to Earth with an injured Hamburglar.
2) The Bruins still aren’t out of the woods, however. They needed to come out on Sunday with a definitive effort so quick on the heels of a great all-around win against the Rangers on Saturday, and instead it was a wildly erratic effort against a team they should have blown out of the building. The B’s were pretty good in the first period, and that makes sense given it was the second night of back-to-backs, and the third game in four days. But they dropped off the table in the second and third period, and winning took a great effort from Tuukka Rask, some good luck – the Hurricanes hit four posts in the game – and a Carolina club that couldn’t finish around the net. The B’s porous defense allowed the Hurricanes many very good looks in the final 40-plus minutes, and they couldn’t finish any of them off despite Boston’s defensive generosity. If anybody was looking for confirmation that the B’s will roll through these final six games, they didn’t quite get it on Sunday in Carolina.
3) The kids are carrying the Bruins. That was especially true on Sunday with Ryan Spooner and David Pastrnak scoring the team’s only goals, and Torey Krug serving as one of the most active skaters for the Black and Gold as well. That’s probably as it should be with so much of the team monumentally struggling on the second night of back-to-backs (5-8-2 on the season), and in the third game in four nights, and looking particularly old and creaky in situations where the Bruins had succeeded in the past. Ryan Spooner continues to lead the team with six goals and 12 points in 14 games during the month of March, and David Pastrnak now has three game-winning goals for the Black and Gold in a half-season. The Bruins would be out of the playoffs right now without that dynamic duo.
Plus
*Two points, a plus-2 and the overtime game-winning goal for David Pastrnak, who has won a handful of games for the Bruins during his time up with the NHL club. The hope is he can do the same a couple of times in the playoffs as well.
*Tuukka Rask finished with 29 saves, and did a great job forcing Jeff Skinner to go off the post with a 2-on-1 chance in the third period that could have been the game for the Hurricanes. The B’s defense did him no favors, so Rask had to be on his game after being forced to leave Saturday’s game with migraines.
*Ryan Spooner opened up the scoring in the first period with a goal-scorer’s patience waiting for Anton Khudobin to open up before firing from the slot. Spooner has six goals and 12 points in 14 games during the month of March.
Minus
*One shot on net, 0-for-1 in the face-off circle and a pair of penalties for Chris Kelly in a tough night for the bottom two lines for the Bruins aside from Carl Soderberg’s pass to David Pastrnak in OT.
*One shot on net in 17:09 of ice time for Jeff Skinner, who hit the post on a 2-on-1 odd man rush in the third period that should have been the regulation game-winner for the Hurricanes. It was part of a number of chances for Carolina that they couldn’t capitalize on throughout the second and third period.
*Patrice Bergeron finished 16-of-37 in the face-off circle, and had his issue against Jay McClement and Eric Staal throughout the game. It’s rare that you No. 37 have a rough day in the face-off circle, but Sunday was one of those kinds of days.