Bruins blow late lead, fall to Canucks in team’s fifth consecutive OT contest
"It's not acceptable that we don't close that game out 2-0 in the third," head coach Jim Montgomery said.
The Bruins blew a two-goal lead against the Canucks in what was their fifth straight overtime game Saturday night.
Boston has played 21 overtime contests this season out of 59 total games played. They have lost 13 of those games, and there are still 23 games left in the regular season.
In fact, the Bruins haven’t won a regulation game since Feb. 8 (4-0 vs. Canucks).
On Saturday, Boston led two goals to none in its latest matchup against Vancouver with less than 10 minutes left in the third period. The Canucks’ Brock Boeser slipped one past Bruins’ goaltender Jeremy Swayman with seven minutes to go. Then, Filip Hronek tied things up with just over one minute left in regulation.
Naturally, Boston’s opponent forced overtime against the black and yellow for the fifth time since Feb. 17.
It didn’t take the Canucks long to secure the victory over the Bruins in overtime. Boston dug itself into a hole when they were penalized for too many men on the ice just over one minute into the period.
Within 34 seconds, Boeser struck again and handed the Bruins their third loss in five games.
The Bruins’ late-game woes are nothing new, though. Seven of their 13 overtime losses this season have been kickstarted by a third-period blown lead.
Head coach Jim Montgomery isn’t happy with Saturday’s result, but he believes his team can learn from their latest loss.
“We were playing hard and trying to execute the right things,” Montgomery said on NESN’s postgame show. “But that’s an elite team (the Canucks) that lost four in a row. And you know, they were playing with some desperation. We saw that and it’s not acceptable that we don’t close that game out 2-0 in the third.
“There’s a lot of us that made mistakes, you know. We win as a team, we lose as a team, and we’ll get better from this.”
The NHL record for most overtime contests played in a season is held by the 2003-04 Bruins at 30. Four teams hold the league’s overtime loss record in one season with 18.
There’s still plenty of regular season left, but the Bruins are inching closer to such history with each game as of late.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com