Bruins Squander Third-Period Lead, Drop Second Straight in OT

VANCOUVER -- Brock Boeser scored his second goal on an overtime power play, and the Vancouver Canucks came back from a down two goals to end a four-game losing streak with a 3-2 win against the Boston Bruins at Rogers Arena on Saturday.

Boston was called for too many men on the ice at 1:09 of overtime, and Boeser parked himself on the right side of the crease to tap in a hard pass from J.T. Miller from the top of the left face-off circle at 1:34.

“I feel like we outplayed one of the best teams in the League today for 60 straight minutes, even though we were losing,” said Miller, who had three assists. “So, it feels good. Let's not make it more than it is, it's just a hockey game in February, but timing-wise it feels good just for the way it's been going a little bit lately.”
 
Vancouver trailed 2-0 going into the third period, but Boeser scored his first goal at 12:49 and Filip Hronek tied the game 2-2 with 1:11 left in the third period and Thatcher Demko pulled for an extra attacker. 

“A [heck] of an effort,” coach Rick Tocchet said. “They've been a resilient group. [Miller] willed the game, his third period was incredible.”

Demko made 20 saves for the Canucks (38-16-6), who hadn’t lost more than two in a row this season before the recent slide. Vancouver moved back into first place in the NHL, one point ahead of the Bruins and New York Rangers.

“Our bench was pretty calm in the sense that we weren't panicking. I like that,” Tocchet said. “The last three, four games, the bench would have been a little different, see a little bit of frustration, slamming and sticks and stuff. I didn't see that tonight. There wasn't frustration, even though we're down 2-0.”

Jeremy Swayman made 36 saves and Jesper Boqvist and Danton Heinen scored for the Bruins (34-12-3), who have points in five straight games (2-0-3) but haven’t won in regulation since beating the Canucks 4-0 in Boston on Feb. 8.

“Down the stretch good teams find ways to finish up those games and we consider ourselves a good team,” Heinen said. “So we definitely put pressure on ourselves to close those out and that's disappointing but put it behind us and learn from it.”

Hronek tied it 2-2 with a slap shot from the point that beat Swayman, who was screened by Boeser at the top of the crease, high on the glove side.

“I knew he was winding up and it was good flash screen by the guy in front of me but obviously I want that back,” Swayman said. “It's one of those things where it can be a positioning save and it's just unacceptable. We can't be losing games like that.”

Boeser made it 2-1 at 12:49 of the third period, shooting a bouncing puck past Swayman from the left face-off dot after a cross-ice pass from Nikita Zadorov. 

The play started with Miller winning an offensive zone face-off.

"Whether we won or lost, I thought that we just played an awesome 60 minutes,” Miller said. “Sometimes they're going to go in and sometimes they're not.”

Boqvist put Boston ahead 1-0 at 5:27 of the second period on a breakaway from the hash marks after getting behind Hronek following a neutral zone face-off battle. Boqvist took a nice pass from Justin Brazeau, who was playing his third NHL game, around defenseman Quinn Hughes and scored on a forehand deke in tight around the outstretched right pad of Demko.

“I just found the puck and I heard the bench yell ‘two,’ so I tried to look over and put it to an area because I know how fast he is and how skilled he is,” Brazeau said. “So it was a nice play by him.”

Heinen made it 2-0 at 11:15, shoveling the puck inside the left post from the top of the crease after Trent Frederic’s wraparound attempt from the other side.

“I kind of know he's going to try to put it far post across the crease there, so just try to stay kind of backdoor and luckily I chipped it in,” Heinen said. “I guess that's where you got to go to score goals.”

Boston was outshot 17-5 in the third period and forced to play overtime for a fifth straight game.

“I just don't think we played the right hockey in the third period,” said defenseman Brandon Carlo. “From getting pucks north out of the [defensive] zone, to getting pucks behind them, playing the right style of game to kind of limit their chances, I don't think we did a good enough job at that.”

NOTES: Boeser has 33 goals this season, extending his NHL career high, but entered Saturday with just one in 10 games since playing in the NHL All-Star Game on Feb. 3. … Boston defenseman Matt Grzelcyk played 19:39 in his return after missing one game with a lower-body injury sustained early in a 6-5 overtime win against the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday. … The Canucks matched their team record for wins through 60 games, a feat previously reached in 2011-12 and 2010-11, and they won the Presidents’ Trophy as the NHL’s top regular season team in each of those seasons.