Recap: Bruins tame Wild in 5-2 victory

Mar 18, 2023 - 9:12 PM

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The Bruins needed a nice win to build back some momentum on their tremendous season so far. The Wild came into this afternoon scorching hot, on a 14-game point streak. Who came out on top?

First Period

After a strong start, the Bruins get sloppy and Minnesota makes them pay. Matt Boldy finds Boston Bruins legend Marcus Johansson in a 2-on-0 after taking advantage of an odd-man rush and tips one past Linus Ullmark to give the Wild a 1-0 lead.

The Bruins wouldn’t be denied before the first intermission! After some sustained offensive zone pressure, Patrice Bergeron found Jake DeBrusk flying into the zone from the bench, and JDB whipped one glove-side on Filip Gustavsson to even the score, 1-1.

Second Period

An anemic power play finally showed some life! Instead of taking a one-timer, David Pastrnak opts to hold onto a feed from Hampus Lindholm to change his shooting angle, and ripples the twine to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead!

The Bruins didn’t stop there! With some persistent zone time by the Czechmates, David Krejci find the space to slide the puck into the middle of the slot (looking for a deflection by Charlie McAvoy at the far post) and got a fortuitous deflection off Marcus Johansson’s stick to slide the biscuit five-hole on Gustavsson, increasing the Bruins’ advantage to 3-1!

Third Period

Minnesota wouldn’t go into the evening quietly. On a Wild man advantage, Frederick Gaudreau made a stellar feed to Oskar Sundqvist, who puts one past Ullmark to pull the Wild within one, making it a 3-2 game.

The Bruins would show a heck of a lot of resiliency to regain a two-goal advantage. After some strong forechecking by Jake DeBrusk and Dmitry Orlov along the half wall, the puck finds its way to Brad Marchand below the goal line, who catches Patrice Bergeron streaking into the slot. The Boston captain slams a one-timer to the back of the net, giving Boston a 4-2 lead!

Trent Frederic would rip the puck dead-center into an empty net, sealing a Bruins 5-2 victory.

FINAL: Boston Bruins 5 - 2 Minnesota Wild

Game Notes

• Trent Frederic continues to add to his his career-high goals total, nabbing his 16th goal of the season.
• Linus Ullmark tallies his 34th win on the campaign. Great for him to rebound after his tough outing in Chicago.
• Jim Montgomery showed off another tremendous skill of his this afternoon: coaches challenges. He’s 5-for-5 on the season when initiating a challenge, including twice getting Minnesota goals overturned on missed offsides calls. When a delay of game penalty comes on the other end of a wrong offsides challenge, it’s impressive not just on Montgomery but on the whole coaching staff to pick and choose their challenges correctly.
• With an assist on Jake DeBrusk’s first period goal, Patrice Bergeron continues to climb the ranks of Bruins 50-point seasons with 14 in his illustrious career. Congrats, Cap!

• The Bruins will be right back it tomorrow afternoon with a 1pm puck drop in Buffalo. We’ll be there!
• If you haven’t been already, check out our post-game quick hits podcasts linked at the bottom of each recap going forward:

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