After seemingly turning things around last weekend with back-to-back shutouts, the Boston Bruins returned to their old habits on Tuesday.
A 4-0 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs, in which they allowed three goals on the power play, ended the Bruins’ chances for their first three-game winning streak of the season. But the Calgary Flames will be looking to start a new record when they visit Boston on Thursday.
Tuesday was the fourth time in 10 games that Boston has given up three runs on the man advantage, and the third time they have lost in a shutout. Anthony Stratz and the power play are 6-0 against the Maple Leafs, who have lost the last eight regular season meetings between the teams.
“The players who have the privilege of being on either the penalty kill or the power play, along with us as coaches, we have to get better in our planning and execution,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said. spoke.
David Pastrnak (six goals, 11 points) made four shots and converted three penalties in 22 minutes, 18 seconds for Toronto after coming off the bench for the third period against the Seattle Kraken on Sunday. He played the most of any Bruins forward.
While this was evidence of a solid 5-on-5 game, the special teams – 29th in the NHL on the power play (13.3 percent) and 20th on the penalty kill (76.2 percent) – need to be better.
“Honestly, it was a tough loss, but I feel like we were there for most of the game and our special teams obviously hurt us,” Pastrnak said.
However, Montgomery has shown improvement overall.
“Our habits and details are growing,” Montgomery says. “You don’t want to lose 4-0, but they scored three goals on the power play. I don’t think they’re giving up that much when you watch a 5-on-5 game. …We’re still losing. “We’re not going to get the Ozone time that we wanted, but it’s a work in progress. ”
The Bruins lost defenseman Andrew Peake (upper-body injury) after a hit by Toronto’s Max Pacioretty in the first period on Tuesday. There is no update on his status.
The Flames have won two of three games since failing in four games, defeating the Montreal Canadiens 3-2 in overtime on Tuesday and heading to Boston for the second game of a three-game Atlantic Division trip. Arrived.
The star of the night was 21-year-old Matt Coronato, in just his third game since being promoted to Calgary from American Hockey, scoring twice, first with 2:46 left in regulation time and then with 7 seconds left in overtime. . league.
The Harvard product has four goals in eight NHL games this season.
Linemate Blake Coleman said of Coronato, “This kid can shoot, some big ones.” “He’s a really talented, hard-working kid, humble and brings a lot to the table.”
Connor Zary, who had recently been moved down to the fourth line, scored his first goal for Calgary. Fellow 23-year-old Dustin Wolf made 15 of his 21 saves in the first period, keeping the game scoreless.
While the standout performances from the young players in the Flames’ lineup were encouraging, coach Ryan Husker, like Montgomery, has a team with questions to answer in unique situations.
Calgary’s power play ranks 23rd in the NHL (15.8), but it has only scored one of six goals in the past eight games. Their penalty kill was 27th (72.1), the worst of the two units.
“Five-on-five, we have a few things going on for us,” Husker said. “I like the effort from pretty much everyone in the lineup, (but) we just want to move on the other side of the game as well.”
–Field level media
