Recap: David Krejci’s late tip lifts the Bruins over the Senators

There wasn’t a ton happening in the first period, BUT: David Backes chose “Baby Shark” for his “Bruins Beats” selection, which rules.

After previous PP attempts looked awkward and out of sync, the B’s get it going. A beautiful cross-ice feed from Torey Krug is buried by Brad Marchand. 1-0 Bruins.

Shortly after the Bruins take the lead, Ottawa ties it up. Miscommunication between Patrice Bergeron and Zdeno Chara leads to the puck sliding to Jean-Gabriel Pageau in the slot. He took advantage of that good fortune and beat Tuukka Rask with a dart upstairs. 1-1 tie.

Torey Krug makes a curious decision with the puck and ends up paying for it, as it ricochets to Brady Tkachuk, who tucks it in the open net. 2-1 Senators.

With little doing on offense, the Bruins are the recipients of a gift bounce. The goal is credited to Chris Wagner, and it’s a 2-2 tie in the third.

With time running out, David Krejci tips Danton Heinen’s shot past Craig Anderson and the Bruins eke out another last-minute miracle. 3-2 Bruins.

And that was it! Ottawa couldn’t muster a goal in the last 44 seconds, and the B’s escape with a 3-2 win to run the point streak to 19 games.

Game notes

• From a Bruins perspective, this wasn’t a great game. The end result is all you can ask for, of course, but getting there...yikes. The B’s had plenty of shots, but this didn’t feel like a game Craig Anderson was stealing or anything like that. The Bruins weren’t very crisp all game long, and for a while, it felt like they were playing down to their opponents.
• The winning goal was pretty funny. The Bruins had a decent bit of possession, but Matt Grzelcyk didn’t feel like he could keep the puck in the zone, so he bailed to regroup. The Garden crowd collectively groaned when the puck left the zone, but Grzelcyk clearly had a plan. The pass he made to Danton Heinen was a beauty, and Heien/Krejci took care of the rest.
• Lee Stempniak actually had a pretty decent start to this game, making a few solid plays to create chances in the first. He seemed to fade a bit down the stretch, and was a casualty of the shortened bench in the third period.
• Bruce Cassidy was clearly unhappy with some of his forwards, saying after the game that he had a few guys who needed to compete harder on offense. He borderline skated two lines down the stretch in the third: a Marchand-Bergeron-Wagner line and a Heinen-Krejci-Backes line.
• Cassidy didn’t name names, but it’s not hard to figure out who was in his doghouse. Charlie Coyle only skated two shifts in the third. Stempniak skated one, as did Peter Cehlarik.
• Chris Wagner is making a case of being Don Sweeney’s best free agent signing. He had his skating legs all night, with the 4th line looking the most dangerous for the majority of the game. He earned a promotion to the Bergeron line in the third period. After the game, Marchand praised Wagner, calling him “fun to watch” as of late.
• Jake DeBrusk walked by me in the press box tonight, wearing a walking boot on his left foot. It appears that he’ll be out at least the next few games.

The Bruins are back in action Sunday night against Pittsburgh.