11/14/22 by Christopher Ferara
The Bruins are hot team in the NHL right now. Boston started the season with a brand new coach and star players Brad Marcha, Charlie McAvoy, and Matt Grzelcyk sidelined due to injury. Nevertheless, the Bruins exceeded expectations.
The team won 13 out of their first 15 games for the first time since 1929. Throughout that streak, the Bruins rank 1st in goals with 60, 1st in goals per game with 9.39, 1st in goals against per game with 2.2, and their penalty kill also leads the league at an outstanding 94.4%. The only team that allows fewer games than the Bruins is the Winnipeg Jets with 31. That dominance on defense has been a major help to Linus Ullmark, who has been unbeatable this season. Ullmark has started the season 10-1 and leads the league in save percentage with a 93% clip.
Just 6 minutes into the first period against the Vancouver Canucks, Taylor Hall wheels around the zone and finds Connor Clifton for the one-timer at the top of the circle. Three minutes after, JT Miller shows off his silky smooth skills and whips the puck through the outreached leg of Bruins goalie Ullmark to tie the game 1-1. With three minutes left in the first period, Connor Clifton rips a slap shot. The puck is tipped in by Patrice Bergeron to give the Bruins the lead heading into the second period.
With 8:41 left in the second, Pavel Zacha goes give-and-go with Hampus Lindholm and fires it in to put the Bruins up by 2. Then, with 2:37 left in the second period, Brad Marchand takes David Pastanak cross ice feed and buries the puck in, just seconds into another power play which gives the Bruins the lead 4-1 ending the second period.
Four minutes into the final period, Sheldon Dries fires the puck into the net. It appears as if the puck went off the stick of former Bruins draft pick Jack Studnicka– but after review, it did not.
With four minutes left in the game, the Canucks are on the power play after a Marchand interference. Vancouver pulls their goalie to create a 6-4 advantage, failing to capitalize on the opportunity, turning it over and leading to a Thomas Nosek empty net goal, sealing the Bruin’s victory in their 14th game.