Boston

Bruins Knock Off Blue Jackets in Overtime

Six years ago, the Bruins were doomed by two goals in 17 seconds in the Stanley Cup Final.

History wasn’t about to repeat itself tonight.

After coughing up a one-goal lead by allowing two goals in 13 seconds in the third period to the Columbus Blue Jackets, Charlie Coyle’s equalizer and game-winner in overtime capped off Boston’s first overtime game of the postseason and gave the Bruins a 3-2 win in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference second round series.

Coyle, acquired from the Minnesota Wild at the trade deadline on Feb. 20 for Ryan Donato, now has five goals in eight postseason games for the Black and Gold. He has six points overall since the start of the playoffs, giving him as many points as he had in 21 regular season games for the Bruins.

Each goal served as a modicum of redemption for Coyle, who had a turnover that led to the first goal of the night for Columbus.

"I thought he was good," Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. "Clearly he wanted to atone, and he did. Marcus [Johansson] made some great plays but he had to finish them."

The overtime winner was a thing of beauty, the result of a three-man weave in the attacking zone with Marcus Johansson and Danton Heinen. 

Heinen shoved a pass atop the zone to the left-wing circle for Johansson, who found Coyle cutting in the back door to deliver the dagger on Columbus netminder Sergei Bobrovsky at 5:15 of the extra session.

Bobrovsky made 34 saves on 37 shots, including 14 in the first period when the Bruins came out gangbusters. 

"We wanted to keep the same momentum, come out really hard and put pucks deep and forecheck," Tuukka Rask told NBC broadcaster Brian Boucher. "I thought we accomplished that right off the bat. Sometimes it’s very emotional after a Game 7 like that, you’re still feeling the same emotions and it can be good or bad. We also knew that Columbus had eight days off there, so we just wanted to not let them in the game right off the bat."

Bobrovsky's lone blemish in the first period came when the Blue Jackets were on the power play and Noel Acciari spoiled it with a shorthanded goal at 10:34 on a feed from Charlie McAvoy.

"We had talked about how on their two-man rushes they drop down, so I was thinking shot first," Acciari said. "It ended up working out for me."

Columbus, which hadn't played since finishing off a stunning sweep of the top-seeded Tampa Bay Lightning on April 16, weathered the initial storm and outshot the Bruins 10-8 in the middle frame.

The Blue Jackets broke through for their two goals in 13 seconds beginning at 7:39 of the third, first on a rip from Brandon Dubinsky and next on a deflection off the body of Pierre-Luc Dubois from Seth Jones.

Aside from that stretch, however, Rask was solid for the Bruins, turning aside 20 of the 22 shots he faced. Over his last two games, Rask has a .945 save percentage and a 1.45 goals against average.

Coyle's equalizer from Johansson and Torey Kruk came at 15:25 of the third.

On a down note, Boston center David Krejci did not appear on the team's bench in overtime after suffering an upper-body injury in the third period on a hit from ex-teammate Riley Nash. 

Game 2 of the series is Saturday night at 8 p.m. at TD Garden.

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