The Bruins completed the season sweep of the Columbus Blue Jackets in dramatic fashion on Monday, but they can only hope that it was not too much of a Pyrrhic victory.
Jake DeBrusk scored his second goal of the game in overtime to lift the Bruins to a 3-2 win, taking a feed from Hampus Lindholm and beating Elvis Merzlikins with an off-wing wrister 1:03 into the extra session.
But in the nasty, hot-tempered game, the B’s lost Trent Frederic to an upper body injury in the second period and David Pastrnak, who as been battling a core injury, left the game with discomfort in the third period.
Other than that, the game was highly entertaining.
After a sleepy start in the first period, things heated up dramatically by the end of the period. The Bruins were not sharp in the early going and fell behind by a goal, and it probably could have been worse than that.
Columbus took the 1-0 lead at 4:31. Jake Voracek cleared the puck out of the Jackets’ zone and Matt Grzelcyk could not handle the puck in the neutral zone, with the puck going off his skate and into the middle of the ice. Emil Bemstrom seized it and, as he angled away from Brandon Carlo, he beat Linus Ullmark with a snap shot over the goalie’s glove shoulder.
Slowly but surely, tempers began to rise. First, Voracek did not like Frederic pressing the issue after the whistle on net-front scrum and both got heaved for roughing. Then off the ensuing faceoff, Brad Marchand was whistled for interference. Marchand, who hasn’t been getting a lot of calls lately, was incensed by the penalty as he went to the box.
The Bruins killed that off and Marchand came out buzzing. Late in the period, Columbus defenseman Andrew Peeke pinched down from his right point position and Marchand blasted him with a clean check along the boards. Peeke stayed down, but there was no whistle.
McAvoy grabbed the loose puck and spotted Jake DeBrusk for a clean breakaway and DeBrusk buried his 20th of the year at 18:32, giving him his second career 20-goal season (he had 27 in 2018-19) and extending his goal streak to five games.
After Peeke eventually got up and off the ice — he returned in the second period — the Jackets were furious. Voracek earned himself a 10-minute misconduct and at the end of the period, Patrice Bergeron did not like a hit from Oliver Bjorkstrand and went back at him, earning both of them roughing penalties.
After the Bruins squandered a four-minute power-play after Vladislav Gavrikov cut Taylor Hall with a high-stick (a Hampus Lindholm hold negated two minutes of it), they took the lead at 7:52.
With the Bruins doing a great job of possessing the puck in the offensive zone as the third line changed onto the ice, Charlie Coyle curled off the boards and eventually pushed the puck to Craig Smith. Smith took his time to let traffic gather in front and he beat Merzlikins with a long-range wrister.
The Bruins had a great chance to extend the lead when they had a 4-on-3, but they could do nothing with it. And with 15 seconds left in the period, the Jackets tied it up on a contested play. Gavrikov played a high puck with his stick at the right point. The puck went back behind the net, where Voracek fed it out to Zach Werenski for the tying goal, yet another final minute score allowed by the B’s.
Coach Bruce Cassidy challenged that Gavrikov played the puck with a high stick and, after a lengthy review, the challenge was denied and the Bruins faced almost a full penalty kill to start the third.
The B’s also lost Frederic to an upper body injury when he was hit with a clean shoulder check from Jake Christiansen. Frederic, who has had concussion issues, got up slowly and immediately skated off
