Despite David Pastrnak's two third period goals, Bruins fall to Islanders in OT, 5-4

Steve Conroy, Boston Herald on Jan 5, 2025

Published in Hockey

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BOSTON — The Bruins earned one point against the New York Islanders on Sunday, but the hockey gods deemed them worthy of nothing more.

In a game in which they were outplayed for the first 40-plus minutes, David Pastrnak scored twice in the third period to erase a two-goal deficit and send it to overtime.

But an Ilya Sorokin save on Brad Marchand sent Bo Horvat off on a breakaway and he beat Joonas Korpisalo for the winner, with his wrister just breaking through the goalie’s pads for the 5-4 win.

While they got a point, the B’s suffered their fourth straight loss.

The first period saw the Bruins at their most maddening.

They opened the scoring at 3:01 on a hard-working, fourth line goal. Off the rush, Mark Kastelic tossed a backhander toward the net from the left wing. It deflected off the center-driving Cole Koepke and bounced over goalie Ilya Sorokin for his seventh of the year.

There was some contact on the play and Islander coach Patrick Roy challenged the play for goalie interference. Considering the B’s power-play struggles, it was a low-risk, high-yield gamble. The goal was upheld and the B’s got the power play.

That’s where the trouble began. Early in the advantage with the first unit on, the B’s turned over the puck and the Islanders took off on a 2-on-1. Jean-Gabriel Pageau fed Horvat for what looked like an easy goal.

Though only 21 seconds had elapsed on the PP, coach Joe Sacco yanked the top unit off the ice, but the second unit didn’t have much more success.

And then 2:11 after Horvat tied it up with the shorty, the Islanders took the lead. John Beecher couldn’t handle a breakout pass in the neutral zone and the Isles went back on the attack. Ryan Pulock simply threw the puck on the net and it found its way past Korpisalo for the 2-1 lead.

For much of the first period, it was hope pass after hope pass for the B’s, who saw several promising plays die on the vine in the Islander zone.

Futility in the offensive zone put the B’s in a deeper hole in the second period. From the right wing, Brad Marchand fired a shot toward the net that Alexander Romanov blocked and turned it into instant Islander offense. He quickly dished the puck up to Anders Lee on the left wing and, with a 2-on-1, Lee sniped a wrister that beat Korpisalo to the far, glove side.

While the B’s clearly did not have their A game – or their B game, for that matter – they clawed back to get the deficit within a goal at 10:18.

At 10:18, Andrew Peeke carried the puck down the right wing and dished to Justin Brazeau in the middle of the ice. Brazeau wasted no time in ripping a one-timer past Sorokin for his 10th of the season.

Then it was a comedy of errors as the fourth line was hemmed in their own end and the B’s needed several big-time stops from Korpisalo to keep it a one-goal game.

The B’s, theoretically, were in striking distance going into the third period, but they needed to clean up their game if they were to have a chance. The Isles took a 29-18 shot advantage into the third while, according to Natural Stat Trick, they had a 9-4 edge in high danger chances.

But it didn’t take long for the B’s to cough it up again in the third period and fall down by two again.

After Charlie McAvoy stood up his man along the boards, Parker Wotherspoon rimmed the puck around to Marchand, but the captain couldn’t handle it and Pulock pounced. He dished down low to Lee, who made a nice move to the backhand and beat Korpisalo at 3:41.

Still, just 54 seconds later, the B’s again pulled to within a goal. Morgan Geekie stole the puck out high and somehow found Pastnak in the left circle for a one-timer goal, his third in two games and 16th of the year.

And it was Pastrnak who evened it up off a great Pavel Zacha feed with 7:16 left in regulation. Off the rush, Zacha carried the puck deep on the left and fed Pastrnak, who beat Romanov for the tap-in.

That got the game to extra time.

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