There were 4,565 fans in attendance at TD Garden on Monday night to watch Taylor Hall score a pair of goals– including the game-winner– as the Boston Bruins beat the New York Islanders, 3-2, in overtime.
In compliance with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ COVID-19 reopening plans, TD Garden’s seating capacity limit was raised from 12% to 25% in time for Monday’s regular season home finale against the Islanders.
Further adjustments to seating capacity will follow as deemed in accordance with state plans to fully reopen by August 1st.
Tuukka Rask (15-5-2, 2.28 goals-against average, .913 save percentage in 24 games played) made 16 saves on 18 shots faced in the win for Boston.
New York goaltender, Semyon Varlamov (19-11-4, 2.04 goals-against average, .929 save percentage in 36 games played) made 25 saves on 27 shots against before being replaced by Ilya Sorokin (13-6-3, 2.17 goals-against average, .918 save percentage in 22 games played) to start the third period as Varlamov left the game with an upper body injury.
Sorokin stopped 10 out of 11 shots faced in the overtime loss.
The Bruins improved to 33-15-7 (73 points) and secured 3rd place in the MassMutual NHL East Division, while the Islanders dropped to 32-17-7 (71 points) overall and finished in 4th place in the same division as the Isles wrapped up their regular season on Monday.
Boston went 3-3-2 in their regular season series with New York, as well as 18-7-3 on home ice in 2020-21.
The Bruins were without John Moore (hip) and Charlie Coyle (upper body) on Monday, while Ondrej Kase returned to action for the first time since sustaining an upper body injury on Jan. 16th in New Jersey.
Though the team never explicitly stated that Kase sustained a concussion, the right wing missed the last 52 games while recovering and was slotted on the fourth line with Jake DeBrusk at left wing and Curtis Lazar at center.
Coyle, meanwhile, missed his third game due to injury and will be out of the lineup on Tuesday as well.
As a result, Boston’s head coach, Bruce Cassidy, inserted Chris Wagner on the right side of the third line with Nick Ritchie at left wing and Sean Kuraly at center.
Despite a poor effort in the third period of Saturday’s, 5-4, loss to the New York Rangers, Cassidy left his defensive pairings intact, while Jeremy Swayman served as Rask’s backup– giving Jaroslav Halak the night off on Monday.
Trent Frederic, Coyle, Greg McKegg, Moore, Halak, Steven Kampfer, Jakub Zboril, Callum Booth, Connor Clifton, Anton Blidh, Karson Kuhlman and Jarred Tinordi made up the long list of healthy scratches, taxi squad members and injured players for the B’s.
Almost midway into the opening frame, Ryan Pulock was assessed a holding infraction, yielding the first power play of the night to Boston at 7:38 of the first period.
The Bruins did not convert on their first skater advantage of the evening, however.
Late in the period, Nick Leddy cut a rut to the box for holding as well– with Hall on the receiving end for the second time of the night– at 17:55.
The Bruins had a short two-skater advantage when Leo Komarov slashed Brad Marchand, then delivered a quick cheap shot to David Pastrnak while passing by after the whistle– yielding an unsportsmanlike conduct minor as well at 19:14.
It didn’t take long for the B’s to get their revenge on the scoreboard as David Krejci setup Hall (9) with a pass through the low slot for the one-timer goal from the goal line.
Krejci (34) and Marchand (40) had the assists on Hall’s first goal of the night as the Bruins took a, 1-0, lead at 19:21 of the first period.
In the waning seconds of the opening frame, Charlie McAvoy hooked Casey Cizikas and was sent to the sin bin at 19:51.
The ensuing 4-on-4 action spilled over into the middle frame.
After one period, Boston led the Islanders, 1-0, on the scoreboard and, 18-4, in shots on goal.
The Isles held the advantage in blocked shots (7-1), giveaways (5-1) and hits (17-7), while the B’s led in faceoff win percentage (65-35). Both teams had four takeaways aside, while only the Bruins had seen any action on the power play heading into the first intermission and were 1/3.
After taking a hit from Leddy, Hall retaliated with a cross check to the Islanders defender and presented New York with a 4-on-3 advantage 56 seconds into the second period.
Less than a minute later, Oliver Wahlstrom (12) sent a one-timer from the faceoff dot over Rask’s blocker on the short side with traffic in the slot to tie the game, 1-1, at 1:38 of the second period.
Mathew Barzal (28) and Leddy (29) tallied the assists on Wahlstrom’s power-play goal.
Moments later, Marchand (29) put the Bruins ahead, 2-1, after he redirected a shot pass from Krejci into the twine from the doorstep.
Krejci (35) and Pastrnak (28) had the assists on Marchand’s goal at 6:15 of the middle frame.
About two minutes later, Barzal (17) wired a shot from the outer edge of the circle in the high slot over Rask’s blocker on the short side to tie the game, 2-2, at 8:31.
Pulock (15) and Anthony Beauvillier (13) nabbed the assists on Barzal’s goal for the Islanders.
The score was tied, 2-2, after 40 minutes of action. Despite Boston holding the advantage in shots on goal, 27-13, both teams had nine shots apiece in the second period alone.
New York held the advantage in blocked shots (11-6), takeaways (7-5), giveaways (9-4) and hits (32-15), while the Bruins led in faceoff win% (66-35).
The Isles were 1/1 and the B’s were 1/4 on the power play heading into the final frame of regulation.
Prior to the start of the third period, the Bruins tweeted that Kase (upper body) would not return to Monday night’s game, while the Islanders made a change in the crease, swapping Varlamov (upper body) for Sorokin to finish out the night.
Midway through the period, McAvoy and Brock Nelson got tangled up behind the Boston net and received roughing minors at 13:29, yielding 4-on-4 action for a pair of minutes.
Neither team scored as New York pulled Sorokin for an extra attacker with 1:41 remaining in the third period. The Isles had nothing to lose if Boston had scored and a chance to pull ahead of the Bruins in determining playoff seeding if the B’s didn’t hit the empty net.
Luckily for the Islanders, the Bruins presented New York with a very fair chance to steal two points in regulation after icing the puck with 6.8 seconds left on the gameclock.
Luckily for Boston, the Isles didn’t score on the ensuing faceoff in the attacking zone.
Through 60 minutes, the score was still tied, 2-2, as the Bruins were outshooting the Islanders, 36-18, including a, 9-5, advantage in the third period alone.
New York held the advantage in blocked shots (14-9), giveaways (13-9) and hits (41-25), while Boston led in faceoff win% (67-33).
Both teams had nine takeaways each.
As there were no penalties called in the overtime period, the Islanders finished 1/1 on the power play and the Bruins finished 1/4 on the skater advantage on Monday.
Isles head coach, Barry Trotz, started Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Beauvillier and Leddy in overtime, while Cassidy countered with Krejci, Hall and McAvoy.
Just past the midpoint of the extra frame, Hall regrouped with a pass to Krejci before skating back up through the neutral zone– fed on a break-in pass from Krejci before beating Cizikas clean while entering the zone.
Hall (10) danced around the Islanders forward before deking around Leddy and scoring on a backhand shot through Sorokin for the game-winning goal.
Krejci (36) and Mike Reilly (27) had the assists on Hall’s second goal of the game at 2:53 of the overtime period and the Bruins won, 3-2, as a result.
Boston sealed the deal on the victory and their 3rd place seeding in the MassMutual NHL East Division– setting up a quarter of the league’s playoff bracket for 2021 with the Pittsburgh Penguins set to take on the Islanders and the Washington Capitals hosting the Bruins in the First Round of the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The winners of each series will face each other in the Second Round before the four division winners are reseeded in the Stanley Cup Semifinal in light of the pandemic forcing temporarily realigned divisions and division only play.
The Stanley Cup Semifinal is a placeholder for the Conference Finals for this season, with the winner of each Semifinal advancing to the 2021 Stanley Cup Final.
Meanwhile, back on Monday night for a second, the Bruins finished leading in shots on goal, 38-18, including a, 2-0, advantage in shots in overtime alone, as well as in faceoff win% (67-33).
New York wrapped up Monday night’s action with the advantage in blocked shots (14-9), giveaways (13-9) and hits (41-25).
Boston improved to 4-5 in overtime, as well as 8-7 past regulation this season, while the Islanders fell to 4-4 in overtime and 9-6 past regulation overall in 2020-21.
The B’s improved to 25-5-3 (13-0-2 at home) when scoring the game’s first goal, 20-0-2 (12-0-1 at home) when leading after the first period and 6-7-3 (1-2-1 at home) when tied after the second period this season as a result of the win.
The Isles dropped to 9-15-5 (3-11-4 on the road) when allowing the game’s first goal, 4-10-3 (1-8-3 on the road) when trailing after the first period and 13-2-4 (4-2-2 on the road) when trailing after two periods in 2020-21.
The Bruins complete their 2020-21 regular season schedule on the road against the Washington Capitals on Tuesday at Capital One Arena.
Boston will face the Capitals in the First Round of the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs with Game 1 set for Saturday night in Washington, D.C. Puck drop is expected around 7:15 p.m. ET.
