The Boston Bruins dropped Games 1 and 2 on the road against the Carolina Hurricanes and found themselves against the wall before winning Game 3, 4-2, at home.
After Carolina made it 1-0 in the opening period at the TD Garden Friday, the B’s special teams turned the tide, getting a Charlie Coyle shorthanded goal to erase the deficit, then two more tallies with the man advantage. Jeremy Swayman earned the win in his first career playoff start, getting help from a stingy defense that limited Carolina to 27 shots and negated the power play.
How can the Bruins now turn the tide in this series?. They will have to replicate the effort and detail-oriented play that carried them to victory in Game 3 against an opponent that plays a similar style, but has shown to be vulnerable, with injuries pressing a virtual unknown into duty between the pipes.
How we got here
Boston learned in the first two games why Carolina won the Metropolitan Division’s regular season crown, and were reminded of how lopsided the three in-season games between the teams were in the Hurricanes’ favor.
The Bruins came out of the gate in both road games with the requisite energy and playoff intensity, but it was to no avail. Carolina Game 1 starter Antti Raanta, the backup netminder because of Frederik Andersen’s lower body injury, made several quality saves to thwart Boston’s momentum. Once Carolina took the lead, the B’s weren’t able to solve Raanta (35 saves), despite outshooting Carolina.
The Bruins lost both games by a combined score of 10-3. One might think the team was completely outclassed in both games, but several factors made the scores more lopsided than they should have been.
Raanta performed like a veteran in the playoffs, as he stymied Boston’s offense in the opening contest. He held the fort against an early Bruins push to keep them off the scoreboard until Jesper Fast and Sebastian Aho goals gave Carolina a 2-0 lead that they never relinquished. Even with unproven rookie and third-sting goalie Pyotr Kochetkov pressed into action for the Hurricanes, the B’s weren’t able to mount a rally even with a pair of Patrice Bergeron goals.
Boston got into penalty trouble in Game 2, surrendering Aho’s second marker of the contest while down two men, including Bergeron, early in the second period. Carolina’s power play did the job in the first two games of the series, generating goals at key moments.
A big Andrei Svechnikov hit on Hampus Lindholm not only knocked him out of the second game, but forced the Bruins to have to shake up their defense (and lineup) after the series shifted back to Boston for Game 3.
Linus Ullmark was more unlucky than poor in his play. It is easy to point to the goals given up and pin the losses in his first two career postseason starts on him, but give credit to Carolina, which had tremendous puck movement inside the Boston zone in both games. The defensemen didn’t hold the puck for long, getting shots to the net for tips and deflections, and the Hurricanes exploited open seams in the B’s defense for one-timers that found the back of the net.
Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour had his team skating with pace, tenacity and an opportunistic streak. They generated good puck luck, and made Boston pay for nearly every mistake.
What the Bruins did to win Game 3
Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy tapped Swayman to take the net. With Lindholm out, Mike Reilly slotted into the lineup on the left side, and an ineffective Trent Frederic was replaced by veteran Chris Wagner (Walpole, Mass.) for postseason experience and jam.
In a crucial home game to try and change their fortunes, the B’s found themselves in a hole again.
When Brandon Carlo’s attempted clearing pass was knocked down at the Boston blue line and the puck was shot in on Swayman, Carlo compounded the mistake by not neutralizing Vincent Trocheck’s stick. The Carolina forward was able to get to the rebound and put it in, giving the Hurricanes the lead again.
However, Boston’s special teams came to the fore and capitalized on a Carolina mistake for once. With the Hurricanes on the power play, Coyle was able to corral an errant Jesperi Kotkaniemi pass and take off up the middle of the ice on a 2-on-1 rush with Jake DeBrusk. The East Weymouth, Mass., native and former BU center then motored straight to the net where he took DeBrusk’s return pass and put it past Kochetkov.
Brad Marchand’s second-period effort after some lackluster moments in Carolina put the Bruins ahead in the second period, and put the wind at their backs. He went hard to the net, picked up a puck Bergeron had shot, then came across the goalmouth and buried it on the far side. That kind of goal, synonymous with the veteran agitator’s success in Boston over the past decade, invigorated the team and electrified the building.
Power play goals by Pastrnak and Hall secured a 4-2 victory to give the Bruins hope. After losing the special teams battle decisively in the first games, Boston turned the tables.
Defenseman Derek Forbort blocked nine shots, and had a series-high 23:07 in Lindholm’s absence. That kind of performance is why the Bruins made sure to sign him last offseason. Even if the $3 million per year for as many seasons is not ideal, Boston had a gaping hole on the left side that Forbort’s signing addressed. He’s been an easy whipping boy all season, but in a critical situation, he stepped up.
The B’s will be without Lindholm again for Game 4, so expect the same roster, but one that will face a bigger push and more urgency from a Carolina team that had been used to having its way with the Bruins.
3 keys to taking control of the series
1. Win the special teams battle. All three games have been close at even strength, with the power play and penalty killing units having a major impact. With the up-tempo, physical style employed by both teams, don’t expect the referees to put the whistles away anytime soon, so whichever team can maintain the special teams momentum will have the advantage.
2. The series will come down to goaltending. Carolina is desperately hoping to get Andersen or Raanta back, but how healthy will they be? Kochetkov and Swayman are untested and unproven in the NHL playoffs, each with one win under his belt. Swayman has more experience and is a known commodity, but a mystery man like Raanta, the Russian rookie and 2019 second-round pick, poses a different challenge for the Bruins, as there isn’t a lot of game film to study. NHL history is full of examples of no-name goalies who were forced into action and rose to the occasion, so Boston fans cannot assume that if Kochetkov stays in the nets, the B’s have a big advantage.
3. Boston’s best players must play like it. Bergeron aside, none of Boston’s top players backed it up in Carolina, but they established themselves back home on Friday. The B’s need more production and the kind of want-to that Marchand he showed on his second-period strike. Pastrnak played one of the worst games we have ever seen from him in Game 2, but bounced back with a goal and a boost of confidence Friday.
These teams are simply too similar in style and substance for there to be any passengers. If the Bruins can win in these three areas, they not only have a chance to even it up Sunday afternoon but could find a way to pull out a series win.
