Bruins vs. Sens Game 2 RECAP: Late period woes bring Boston to a tied series.

Ugh.

First Period:

Everything in the first period was more or less a “Feeling out” period for both teams, both sides mostly just taking low quality shots on each other, with Rask seeing some of the more interesting chances and steering them away.

The only really important thing to note from this period was that Adam McQuaid left the game around 6 minutes into the period and did not return. (Shoutouts to CrzyCanucklehed once again for the recaps)

...giving Charlie McAvoy an opportunity to be interesting and fun for all to watch, as his already interesting deployment only doubled after that.

Second Period:

The good times only got rolling more in the second as Boston drew first blood with Drew Stafford, who had been having a pretty rough couple of shifts beforehand, was able to open the scoring with a wicked shot capping off an absolutely ruthless Bruins shift in which Ryan Spooner drew three Senators straight to him as one of many highlights of Senators playing brutal defense. 1-0 Bruins!

Unfortunately, Boston would get put on the PK not soon after, and Clarke MacArthur, who hasn’t scored since 2015, would pot it home off of a passing play that found Rask dead to rights and Kevan Miller extremely out of position. 1-1 tie.

Not long after, Matt Beleskey and a number of players got into a big ol’ scrum and ended up with another penalty to kill once the Refs pulled everyone apart. Unfortunately for the Sens, Craig Anderson had some kind of brain fart and allowed Dominic Moore to catch him and Erik Karlsson off guard, and Moore gave Tim Schaller a lay up pass and a practically open net to score into. 2-1 Bruins!

Things only got better as Boston pressed the advantage, and yet another strong shift on the Power Play got David Pastrnak another patented David Pastrnak shot, and who but Patrice Bergeron was able to completely redirect the puck right into the net for him. 3-1 Bruins

With all this, Boston looked to be riding high into the third with all the momentum and an Ottawa team that was just defeated and broken looking.

What could go wrong?

Third Period, where everything went wrong:

I just-

How did-

Yeah. Boston coughed this up. Badly.

It started simple enough as the Sens didn’t seem all that interested in putting anything on Rask that could challenge him, until McAvoy and Zack Smith got in front of Rask and well...

3-2 Bruins.

It didn’t get much better from there. Eric Karlsson and the Sens roared to life not too soon after, Karlsson had a tremendous individual shift that had Derrick Brassard wide open after drawing everyone to him, and the game was tied.

The rest of the period was Boston not necessarily trying to win, but trying their best not to lose in regulation, and at the worst possible time, Zdeno Chara took a delay of game penalty in the final few seconds of regular play, and the Bruins would have to kill a penalty in Overtime.

Overtime:

Boston tries to kill a penalty, allows two shots to ring off the iron, kills the penalty, has a vulnerable minute, and Dion Phaneuf capitalizes and ties the series with a game winner from the point.

Game Notes:

• Boston let this one get away from them. Pure and simple. A miserable, passive, prevent-defense-ass third period put Boston into the hole they dug for themselves and why they lost the game. Every single Boston Bruin and coach on the ice and behind the bench should take responsibility for just assuming they could stop the Sens by scoring two extra goals, including one they were practically gifted.
• McAvoy played a lot of minutes, played very well, but also showed plenty of rookie mistakes that can and should be ironed out by Monday night.
• The Moore line, for all the negative and positive about their need, came to play for the first two period, playing very well for the first 40.
• Your possession leaders for tonight were: Tim Schaller, Matt Beleskey, Sean Kuraly, Frank Vatrano, and Charlie McAvoy.
• Losing McQuaid probably means another Call-up is in the works. Likely O’Gara? Who knows.
• The island of misfit toys is continuing to be the third line and it didn’t get any better with time. David Krejci please come back.
• McAvoy can do a lot, but it’s clear that making him play those kinds of minutes without his defense partners being appropriately rested isn’t good for Boston. Many had to do double duties and having McQuaid for at least the first 40 might’ve been much better for things.
• Come back to Boston, get the series lead, figure it out from there.

The next game is on Monday, at 7pm.