In a game between Boston and Carolina which was rescheduled due to overtime through their ice time, the event of the game highlighted was a heavily disputed second goal for the Boston Bruins. The easy star player on the day was Dougie Hamilton who made his return to the Carolina Hurricanes for the first time since January 18th.
The game started on the night with two great foreign goalies starting in net. On one end of the ice was Petr Mrazek who had helped his team through a three game sweep of the New York Rangers. At the other end was Tuukka Rask, the legendary goalie drafted by Toronto, later traded to Boston.
Boston was eager to defend against the Hurricanes’ top line of Sebastian Aho, Andrei Svechnikov and Teuvo Teravainen. The team deployed their top defensive pairing with Brandon Carlo and Torey Krug being the defensemen coming on, taking advantage of having the last change as the home team.
Veteran captain Zdeno Chara went to lay a hit on Martin Necas, only to have it reversed on him with shock evident on his face. Shortly after, Nino Niederiter was sent off for elbowing Torey Krug which would see the Bruins’ power play unit take the ice for the first time. Although the unit put good pressure onto the net, they were unable to show any result for it while on the power play coming up against a hot goalie.
Eager to return the favour, Charlie McAvoy was sent to the penalty box for two minutes, being called for a tripping penalty. This would see the Hurricanes’ power play unit receive their first chance against the Boston Bruins. The Canes’ put good pressure on the opposing team with Dougie Hamilton firing shots from the blue line that almost scored, but just going wide. As such, Carolina would go empty handed while having the advantage.
Soon after the power play, the Hurricanes’ were still pushing in the offensive end when Joel Edmundson netted the game’s first goal. This would come after receiving a solid pass from Teravainen on a set-up play started from Aho.
Showing why he has some of the most goals scored in the league, David Pastrnak levelled the score with two minutes remaining in the game’s first period. Pastrnak was played across from Brad Marchand who had received the puck from Patrice Bergeron.
Going into the second, McAvoy still looked to be ill disciplined as he was sent off for the second time with a holding penalty. The Canes’ again put good offensive pressure while on the power play, but like their earlier opportunity, came up with nothing to show for the advantage.
With what was quite possibly the most controversial goal of the evening, Charlie Coyle scored a goal after a glove pass play, in which Mrazek had gloved the puck. The game was stopped after the puck went in the net, and many objections were made by the Hurricanes. They stated that the play was either a glove pass if Mrazek was deemed not to have touched the puck, or goaltender interference if Mrazek had touched it. Carolina decided to try to get the call for a glove pass, but ended up taking a penalty as the play was ruled to have been touched by Mrazek, thus the goal call stood.
After the long disputed goal, the penalty started for the Carolina Hurricanes. Perhaps in a sign of getting what was deserved, the Hurricanes scored shorthanded, levelling the score back up at 2-2. The goal was scored by Brock McGinn after receiving a pass from Jordan Staal. In the worst power play of the game, the Bruins both gave up a goal and did not have anything to show for their efforts.
After a long string of continued play, Svechnikov was sent to the penalty box, being called for slashing with eight minutes left in the period. After killing the penalty, the two teams both got testy, resulting in Staal and Coyle both heading to the penalty box. Staal was in the box for two minutes for high sticking while Charlie Coyle was in for two, charged for roughing. Nothing came of the four-on-four and the period concluded with the two sides tied at two apiece.
As the third period started, Svechnikov slayed out a massive open ice hit that would see a couple of minor scrums starting, but ended with no one being sent to the penalty box. Soon, David Krejci scored on Mrazek after having made a hard save on an offensive push from Ondrej Kase. Krejci’s goal saw assists awarded to both Kase and McAvoy.
Jeremy Lauzon then made his presence known, taking a two minute minor for holding. With the third chance for a power play, the Hurricanes still turned up with nothing to show for their efforts offensively.
It wasn’t long after the power play ended that Haydn Fleury scored his first postseason goal, netting it on a hard shot made from the blue line. Fleury had his goal fed by Vincent Trocheck and Ryan Dzingel, equalizing the game halfway through the third period. Making another powerful play for his team, Fleury went to lay a heavy hit on Chris Wagner who purposely turned his back after seeing Fleury come in for one.
That put the player in a dangerous situation as Fleury couldn’t stop at that point of the hit. The play was deemed as clean and Wagner was sent to the bench by the ref.
After good offensive pushes by both teams, it became clear that it was headed to overtime and the period then ended, confirming this.
The puck dropped on an uneventful first period of overtime, with the highlight of the period being Fleury’s massive hit on Kase, which led to his team starting off on an offensive push. Both teams iced the puck often in the extra frame, and the two teams showed their frustration towards each other with Brady Skjei being slashed by the Hurricanes. The force of the slash saw him lose his stick, however, no penalty was called on the play.
Skjei later retaliated, but had a penalty called on him for holding, as a player went down to the ice with just over a minute left to play on the clock. This would lead to the Hurricanes being handed the penalty kill to start the second overtime period.
As the puck dropped after 80 minutes of play, the Boston Bruins had a new breath of life brought to the team. Bergeron scored the game-winning goal in the first sixty seconds which brought the game to a close. The assists went to Pastrnak and Marchand as the three forwards started a passing play to get past the goalie.
Game 2 is set to begin at 8:00pmET on Thursday in Toronto. Many, however, speculate that the game may again be moved due to the Tampa Bay Lightning facing off against the Blue Jackets. They’ll do so in their second game which gets underway air 3:00pmET.
As for the Bruins and Hurricanes, the game is available for viewing on Sportsnet Ontario, NBCSN and CBC. It can also be heard via radio on 99.9 The Fan and 98.5 Sports Hub. The game will also be carried on TVA Sports to be watched in French.