Bruins break the game open with a flurry in the third period, then hang on against the Flyers
Hello again, first place.
The Bruins exploded for three goals in the opening 2:56 of the third period and then held on for dear life to pin a wild 6-5 loss on the Flyers Saturday night and will now start the new week with a league-high 95 points.
Boston had been at the top of the heap for much of the year but was overtaken by the Panthers (94) in recent weeks.
Philadelphia made a game of it, cutting it to 5-4 before Danton Heinen gave the Bruins some breathing room that they would end up needing.
Keeping DeBrusk may have been the club’s shrewdest move of trade deadline week as the winger has scored goals in three of the four games since it passed and he now has 17 on the season.
The Bruins improved to 40-14-15 and have reached that win mark in 12 straight seasons (when 70 games have been played).
John Tortorella was back behind the bench and the Flyers gave the recently suspended coach little to get hot under the collar about through the first dozen minutes — taking a 1-0 lead and holding the Bruins without a shot on goal.
It was another odd-man-rush gaffe that put the Bruins in the hole.
A fumble by David Pastrnak was recovered by Egor Zamula and he hit old friend Garnet Hathaway, who broke in with Ryan Poehling with just Matt Grzelcyk back.
Hathaway toe-dragged before feeding Poehling, who one-timed it over Jeremy Swayman’s glove.
Sean Couturier nearly increased the lead when he picked off a Heinen pass and rifled one that Swayman took in the gut.
Moments later Heinen landed the hit of the period when he plastered Erik Johnson against the backboard.
Beecher prevented the Bruins from being Blutarsky’d when he landed the home team’s first shot on net, a steamer that Felix Sandstrom kicked out with his left pad.
The Bruins tied the score when Morgan Geekie took a feed from DeBrusk and snuck a good old-fashioned slapper from the top of the circle over Sandstrom’s blocker and under the crossbar at 15:51.
DeBrusk and Parker Wotherspoon were credited with assists on Geekie’s sweet 16th of the season, though the biggest helper belonged to Swayman, who stopped two Travis Konecny shots on a breakaway that led to Boston’s breakout.
The Flyers made a bid to break the deadlock when Brandon Carlo went to the box for tripping Scott Laughton with just 2:05 left in the period, but the penalty-killers did their jobs leaving a 1-all game after 20 minutes.
The Bruins came out with a little more offensive life in the second with Trent Frederic setting up Matt Grzelcyk and Geekie on back-to-back shifts.
Marchand had a chance off a pass from Coyle, and though he had Sandstrom down and out, his roofer went too high.
The rough stuff broke out after a couple of dandy Swayman saves and a Charlie McAvoy illegal hit to Konecny’s head. Not surprisingly, it was old enemy Hathaway who was in the middle of the scrum.
The former Bruin tried to get rough with van Riemsdyk, the former Flyer, while Coyle came to Marchand’s defense after a Travis Sanheim cross-check.
McAvoy, Coyle, and Sanheim slid off to the box and though the Bruins killed the penalty, the Flyers regained the lead just after it expired.
Joel Farabee notched his 20th goal of the season by chopping down Cam York’s blue-line shot past Swayman.
The Bruins pulled even again when Coyle buried a Marchand feed on the doorstep with Poehling off for hooking Pastrnak.
It was the career-high 22d goal of the season for Coyle before he scored early to start the Bruins outburst.
