At 2:30 in overtime, David Pastrnak scored the 57th goal of his season for the Boston Bruins. This allowed them to achieve another important victory against their opponents, the Toronto Maple Leafs. With this new win, Bruins reached a total of 61 victories, which means that they are very close to gaining an NHL record of having the most wins in one season–previously held by Detroit in 1995-96 and later tied by Tampa Bay in 2018-19.
“The defense got the puck and it ended up in the goal,” said Pastrnak, who was feeling sick but still played. “My teammates really motivated me, so I’m very thankful.”
Bruins coach Jim Montgomery praised Pastrnak for being able to win despite his stomach viruses.
Jeremy Swayman made 31 saves for the Boston Bruins ice hockey team to help them win four games in a row. This has put their record up to 61 wins, 12 losses and 5 ties – which many people call ‘points’. Overall they currently have 127 points, but all time, the Montreal Canadiens set a record with 132 points back in 1976-77. After winning his fourth game in a row Jeremy said that playing in the city of Boston is really special and was good practice for an upcoming Stanley Cup playoffs.
Ilya Samsonov did an amazing job for Toronto by making 31 saves. Sam Lafferty scored the only goal in the second period, giving them a lead of 1-0. Toronto’s coach, Sheldon Keefe, said that his team worked really hard and had to take time getting used to their opponents. In the end, it was still a successful point for them!
At the start of the match, Boston had more shots on goal than Toronto (11 to 7), but none were successful. Near the end of the second period, there was a mistake near center ice that allowed Toronto’s Zach Aston-Reese to shoot from just inside the blue line and score his 12th goal this season. The name of the player who scored is Lafferty and he beat Swayman with his shot.
With 8 minutes and 25 seconds left on the clock, Boston scored the equalizing goal. Brandon Carlo was able to keep hold of the ball in Toronto’s end before passing it over to Coyle under pressure – who then managed to make the shot for his 14th goal of the season.
Coyle said,”There was a lot of open space which gave me enough time to take my shot and luckily I found way for it to go in”.
Bruins center David Krejci missed his second consecutive game due to a leg injury and the team recalled emergency forward Oskar Steen from Providence so he could play in his third NHL game of the season. Maple Leafs defensemen Jake McCabe celebrated playing his 500th career NHL game on Thursday, after being acquired by Toronto from Chicago two months ago. Bruins defensemen Charlie McAvoy was not allowed to finish the game as a safety precaution. Also, nobody scored on any power plays during that match.
The Toronto Maple Leafs will play the Montreal Canadiens at home on Saturday night, and the Boston Bruins will also be playing a game against the New Jersey Devils at their home stadium on that same day. For more news about other NHL teams, check out the official Twitter accounts of NHL Zone and AP Sports.
