Fourth Line Lights Spark on Bruins Comeback

EDMONTON, Alberta- The frustration had been building a bit for the Bruins during their swing through Western Canada. Despite splitting the first two games of the trip, Boston was clearly snake bitten, potting just three goals on 77 shots - and a handful of clankers off iron.
That trend continued on Tuesday night, as the Bruins peppered Edmonton goalie Cam Talbot with 31 shots through two periods - while hitting two more posts - and had nothing to show for it.
It appeared that Boston was on its way to yet another maddening finish. But sometimes all you need is a bounce - and a little bit of grit.
And that's exactly what the Bruins got.

Boston's fourth line of Tim Schaller, Sean Kuraly, and Noel Acciari - trusted by Bruce Cassidy with vital minutes in the third period - rewarded their coach's confidence when Acciari banked one home to get the Bruins on the board early in the final frame.
The goal set the tone for a dominating third, which saw Boston overcome a two-goal deficit with three unanswered goals - including David Krejci's winner with 1:04 to go - en route to a scintillating 3-2 victory over the Oilers at Rogers Place.
"Offensively, they've done a real good job chipping in," said Cassidy. "They're over 20 goals even strength as a line. That's pretty good for a fourth line that doesn't see any power-play time. It was a big one by Noel tonight, typical goals.
"Again for Noel, going to the net, willing to pay the price, be around there. Very, very happy for those guys. I think they're well liked by the group, so when they give you energy, it just gets the whole team going and they've done it more than once for us this year."

Acciari's goal - his seventh of the year - began with a strong offensive zone entry. The bulky winger carried the puck in along the right wing and fired a shot off the side of the goal, before picking up the rebound and circling the net. Acciari's wraparound attempt sailed through the crease and redirected off of Ryan Strome's right foot at 4:37 of the period.
It was just the bounce Boston needed to spark its game.
"We're gonna run into good goaltenders, he was playing really well," said Acciari. "But we couldn't change our game, getting pucks to the net, just continue to get through the neutral zone and not turn it over."
Cassidy has never shied away from using his fourth line triumvirate in crucial situations, against the opponents' top players. And that was no different on Tuesday night.
"We were almost hoping they threw out [Connor] McDavid against them for a while," said Cassidy. "They're very responsible, they're big, and Sean's a real good skater, so we thought he could keep up with the pace and angle off plays in our end and close off plays."

Acciari acknowledged that those votes of confidence from the coaching staff go a long way.
"We enjoy that, just having coach's confidence," said Acciari. "We've got to be smart with the puck, know who we're out there against, get pucks in deep, just keep it down low, no turnovers and make sure we have a good high guy."
Boston continued to buzz following Acciari's tally, but did not find the equalizer until some seven minutes later, when another Cassidy coaching maneuver worked out swimmingly. Cassidy switched up his centers earlier in the period, flip-flopping Riley Nash and David Krejci.
With Nash alongside Jake DeBrusk and Ryan Spooner, the Bruins moved the puck swiftly around the offensive zone. After some strong work down low, Charlie McAvoy's point shot rammed off of Nash in the slot. Nash picked up the puck and delivered a nifty behind-the-back feed to Matt Grzelcyk, who was creeping in from the left point and shoveled home the equalizer with 8:18 to play.
"I saw him. Charlie had a good look there. I ended up blocking it and it almost hit me in a pretty bad area," Nash quipped. "Just popped down, so I didn't think I'd get a good shot off just because the D-man was right on my back. Saw Grizz coming in back door, so just tried to lay it out there and luckily the goalie was down and out."

It was Grzelyck's first goal since Nov. 24 against Pittsburgh - also the first of his career - a span of 37 games. On a day in which the Bruins created some competition on the back end with the acquisition of blue liner Nick Holden from the Rangers, it was certainly a good time to break the drought.
"It obviously felt good," said Grzelcyk. "Hadn't scored in quite a while. Wasn't thinking about it too much coming into the game. We were kind of buzzing there offensively and I tried to make a read in case a ricochet or something happened. Luckily it went on Nasher's stick and he made a great play.
"We just made eye contact. He looked at me right before the puck came to him. Wouldn't have been possible without his play."
The third-period onslaught continued when Krejci ended his seven-game goal-less stretch by potting the winner with 1:04 to play. Playing with David Backes and Danton Heinen following the switch-up by Cassidy, Krejci made sure to get to the slot with his wingers wreaking havoc on the forecheck.
When Backes beat two Oilers for the puck and dished to Heinen, Krejci was open out front to rip home the winner.
"They're good on the forecheck," said Krejci. "I just tried to do my thing and obviously tried to be good on the forecheck as well. My game is to get the puck and make things happen. Felt like we were buzzing pretty good the whole third period as a team and as a line. It was nice for my line and other guys to get rewarded and get a big 2 points tonight."

Another night. Another balanced effort. And another win for the Bruins.
"I think we've got a will to win, we want to win," said Cassidy. "There's 82 of these and some nights you just don't have it. I think our group is pretty good at pushing right to the end. And then we'll worry about the next game on the schedule.
"Would have been easy for us to say, 'Hey, three in four, back-to-back, maybe it's not our night.' But I thought the frustration early on of not being able to finish, with Talbot being real good and us not getting a lot of breaks around the net, they stuck with it.
"We did need something good to happen. Noel made it happen and off we went."