The Bruins keep finding ways to make the final minutes count.
Two games into the season, Boston has already shown a knack for turning late pressure into points. After erasing a deficit with three goals in the final four minutes to beat the Rangers on Tuesday, the Bruins did it again Friday night, rallying late and then finishing off Winnipeg 4-3 in overtime at Canadian Life Centre. JJ Peterka scored the winner, while Jeremy Swayman stopped 31 shots to earn the victory.
Boston had to dig out of its own mess to get there. The Bruins spent stretches of the night surviving turnovers, penalties and a shaky start, but they still walked out with two points after a third-period push and a sudden-death finish.
Winnipeg grabbed a 3-2 lead on a late second-period goal, and the Bruins spent much of the third trying to break through Stuart Skinner. Skinner, who had already allowed a soft goal in the first period, turned away Peterka on a partial breakaway, denied Casey Mittelstadt from the slot and got help from the post when Will Borgen rang one off the iron. He also stopped Peterka again when Boston pulled Swayman for a 6-on-5 look.
The breakthrough came after a timeout with 1:38 left in regulation. Elias Lindholm won the faceoff, and David Pastrnak delivered a sharp pass from just above the right circle that Lindholm redirected past Skinner to tie it at 3-3.
Then Peterka got the payoff in overtime. Pastrnak set him up again, and this time Peterka’s wrister got through Skinner for the game-winner.
Boston’s rescue act started in a first period that could have gotten away from it fast. The Bruins were on the back foot almost immediately when Hampus Lindholm gave the puck away on the opening shift, forcing Swayman into saves on Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor right away.
Jonathan Aspirot was called for crosschecking at 2:24, but Boston killed it off. Still, Winnipeg broke through at 4:52 when Dylan DeMelo scored from the right point on a shot that found its way through traffic.
At that stage, the Bruins were being outshot 8-1, and Mark Kastelic decided to try to change the tone the old-fashioned way. He dropped the gloves with Tyrel Bauer in a heavy exchange that left both men standing but certainly not unmarked. Bauer landed a couple of shots that left blood on Kastelic’s white jersey, and the fight seemed to jolt Boston awake.
The response came quickly. At 9:23, Hampus Lindholm tied it with a slapshot from the blue line that Skinner appeared to track all the way before missing with his glove.
Then James Hagens put Boston ahead for the first time in his NHL career at 15:20. Kastelic, back on the ice with gauze packed in his nose, drove toward the slot and got a pass from Fraser Minten.
He lost the puck at the last moment, but Nikita Zadorov was there to fire it off Skinner’s pad, creating a bounce that landed for Hagens, who buried the keep-the-puck goal.
Boston let the period get a little loose near the end, but Swayman kept the lead intact with 11 saves in the opening frame.
The second period brought more of the same early trouble. The Bruins turned pucks over, then Elias Lindholm took a tripping penalty at the offensive blue line at 1:34. Just 16 seconds later, Winnipeg tied it when Connor scored from the bottom of the circle, with Swayman struggling to track a loose puck and Zadorov screening in front.
Boston got two power plays in the period, but neither produced a goal. The second looked better than the first, yet the Bruins couldn’t cash in.
And the Bruins’ own sloppiness came back to bite them late in the period. With 12 seconds left, they were scrambling in their own end before Mario Ferraro beat Swayman from above the circle on a shot that appeared to deflect off David Pastrnak and send Winnipeg into the third period up 3-2.
That lead didn’t survive the Bruins’ push, and by the time Peterka finished the job in overtime, Boston had done what it has already done twice this season: win when the game was hanging in the balance.
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