Recap: Coyle’s OT goal gives Bruins a 2-1 win in Tampa

Folks, you can exhale now — that was quite a game.

Charlie Coyle’s goal late in overtime gave the Bruins a 2-1 win and (for now) put them alone in third place in the Atlantic Division.

To the highlights!

After a scoreless first, Jake DeBrusk continued his hot streak with this second period goal, as the B’s took advantage of some sloppy play by Tampa to take a 1-0 lead.

The lead didn’t last long — just a couple minutes later, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare finds some space in the slot and wires one past Linus Ullmark to make it a 1-1 game.

The teams would trade chances, though Tampa really controlled play for large stretches of the third period.

Ullmark stood tall, however, including saves like this one:

Late in OT, DeBrusk and Charlie Coyle stick with a puck battle behind the Tampa net and Coyle eventually corrals the puck, finds himself all alone, and beats Andrei Vasilevskiy to give the Bruins a 2-1 win.

Game notes

• Quite a game, eh? While this was hardly the Bruins’ most complete 60-minute affair, there was a lot to like about some of the individual performances tonight, particularly from guys like Curtis Lazar, Taylor Hall, and DeBrusk.
• It might be a bit of recency bias, but this was the best game I can remember DeBrusk playing since those “Playoff DeBrusk” games against the Leafs. Sure, he had that hat trick earlier this season, but he was fantastic in all three zones tonight. His defensive effort started the sequence that led to the game-winning goal, then his battle with Victor Hedman behind the net is what led to Coyle getting the puck. Oh, and he scored a goal. Not bad!
• Speaking of the game-winner, you have to admire the big-time superstar effort from Nikita Kucherov on the goal. After his scoring chance went by the wayside, he ambled back to his zone, saw that there was a 50/50 battle behind his net, and...decided to try to fly the zone for a breakaway? You could see Hedman gesture to him after Coyle won it. Hey, at least he was close to the bench to hit the locker room!
• The Bruins were getting steamrolled for stretches of the third period, but managed to survive due to a strategic icing or two, some timely stoppages in play, and some even more timely saves from Ullmark, who was fantastic. He’s been great lately against some lesser teams, but he sure earned his paycheck tonight against one of the league’s better teams.

Back at it on Sunday afternoon!