Slow start, but Bruins get a much-needed win over the Islanders

Lower than 24 hours after his team was run off the ice in Ottawa, a clear slate was the very last thing Marco Sturm wished to harp on Tuesday.

“I feel all of us ought to really feel embarrassed by what occurred yesterday,” Sturm stated earlier than dealing with the Islanders. “I’m not going to sit down right here and simply transfer on by the subsequent one. I’m a competitor; my guys in my room are very aggressive. All of us take a number of satisfaction in video games like that. We simply need to be higher and present a response right this moment.”

It wasn’t fairly. However Boston’s first-year coach finally obtained what he was in search of at TD Backyard.

Trailing the Islanders by two targets after the opening 20 minutes of play Tuesday, the Bruins surged again through a three-goal salvo in below 4 minutes within the second interval — propelling Boston to a 5-2 win.

5 totally different skaters scored for the Bruins (5-7-0), whereas Bruins goaltender Joonas Korpisalo turned apart 33 of 35 pictures within the win, together with all 15 within the third interval.

“You may really feel the power within the room after the primary [period]. We knew we are able to nonetheless win this recreation,” David Pastrnak stated. “The assumption was there, the positivity after the primary interval was nice. So [it’s] not a shock that we got here out with a win as a result of our mind-set was there and targeted right this moment. . . . Thoughts-set can do magical issues.”

Contemporary off of Monday’s blowout, the return of Hampus Lindholm to the Bruins’ blue line after a five-game absence provided optimism that Boston’s malleable defensive construction was resulting from regain some rigidity.

That preliminary optimism dissipated in brief order, with a Bruins defensive unit — working with Mason Lohrei designated as a wholesome scratch — as soon as once more shredded earlier than many had planted themselves into the decrease bowl.

As Lindholm snapped a shot excessive above Islanders goalie Ilya Sorokin and into glass, New York countered. Bo Horvat fired residence a puck on the ensuing three-on-two to present the guests the lead simply 1:08 into the competition.

New York doubled its lead lower than 4 minutes later throughout a prolonged delayed-penalty sequence. From the left nook, Mathew Barzel picked out Kyle Palmieri slicing backdoor to the online for a 2-0 lead at 4:52.

Whereas Boston discovered itself on the ropes within the defensive zone, Sturm’s squad additionally wasn’t touchdown many punches down the opposite finish of the ice.

After placing two pictures on Sorokin within the opening 50 seconds, the Bruins managed to generate simply two extra over the ultimate 19:10 of the opening interval.

Regardless of the sluggish begin, Sturm was truly inspired by what he noticed as his group made its manner off the ice.

“Was it the beginning we wished? No,” Sturm stated. “However I felt good for some motive, as a result of the blokes had been dialed in. And I may sense that they gave me every little thing they’d within the first interval. The opposite guys had been simply faster and quicker than us.

“And the message was, we simply noticed that script. We’ve simply been by it with Colorado [on Saturday]. They did the identical factor, and we caught with it within the second interval. And that’s precisely what occurred.”

A pair of Islanders penalties lower than three minutes aside early within the second allowed Boston to shift its fortunes.

Boston scored on its second power-play bid at 3:57, with Elias Lindholm snapping residence a puck from the best circle off a tic-tac-toe sequence engineered by David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha.

A revamped prime line — with Marat Khusnutdinov skating instead of Morgan Geekie alongside Lindholm and Pastrnak — secured the equalizer simply 2:52 later.

Shortly after Khusnutdinov ferried the puck by the impartial zone and throughout the offensive blue line, Hampus Lindholm’s playmaking prowess was placed on show. Skating up into the left circle with the puck on his stick, Lindholm dished a slap-pass throughout the slot to Pastrnak, who despatched the puck by Sorokin’s five-hole to knot the rating at 2.

“He’s only a presence on the market that we actually missed,” Sturm stated of Lindholm, who had missed eight of the final 9 video games with a lower-body harm.

Charlie McAvoy joined in Boston’s aggressive play from the blue line lower than a minute later.

With loads of open ice in entrance of him, McAvoy skated in from the left circle and peppered in a puck towards a mass of skaters down low — with the try ricocheting off of Mikey Eyssimont and previous Sorokin to present Boston its first lead of the night.

Boston’s penalty-kill unit — recent off of relinquishing 4 power-play targets on Monday for the primary time since October 2018 — was put to the take a look at as soon as once more on Tuesday after Hampus Lindholm obtained a double-minor for a excessive stick on Palmieri.

However the Bruins’ shorthanded crew stood tall, preserving the Islanders at bay each throughout Lindholm’s four-minute stint within the penalty field and a subsequent hooking name towards Pastrnak. The penalty kill was an ideal 5 for five.

Boston manufactured some much-needed respiratory room on the facility play within the third interval, with Morgan Geekie uncorking a one-timer for his eighth aim of the 12 months — and his fifth straight recreation with a tally.

“He has every little thing to attain 50 on this league,” Pastrnak stated of Geekie. “I hold telling him. . . . He’s gonna get it sooner or later. The shot that he has, it’s wonderful. It’s the perfect on our group.”

Fraser Minten iced the sport with an empty-net aim at 16:36 — the byproduct of Eyssimont stealing the puck from Barzal on the blue line and springing the teenager for a transparent path to the online.

The win won’t absolutely absolve Monday’s debacle. However Sturm was heartened by his group’s willingness to get itself off the mat only a day later.

“I used to be simply wanting ahead to right this moment as a result of I knew these guys had been going to reply,” he stated. “I knew it. I feel we had been all dissatisfied final night time. Not simply me, my gamers, too. And I may inform already earlier than the sport, we had a bunch of conferences — I may inform these guys had been able to go.”

 

Conor Ryan is a workers author masking the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Crimson Sox for Boston.com, a task he has held since 2023.