How Bergeron's leadership sparked strong third period in Bruins' win originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The Boston Bruins were fortunate to take a 2-1 lead into the third period of Tuesday night's game against the Ottawa Senators at TD Garden.
The Senators racked up 37 shots on goal through the first two periods. Ottawa also tallied 56 shot attempts and 27 scoring chances through 40 minutes of action. The Senators are in a tough race for the wild card playoff berths in the Eastern Conference, so it wasn't a surprise that they played desperate to start this game.
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Plenty of reasons why an Ullmark-Swayman playoff platoon makes no sense
That said, the defensive performance through two periods didn't live up to the Bruins' standards, and according to B's goalie Linus Ullmark, team captain Patrice Bergeron let the group know about it during the second intermission.
"We got together there in between periods and Bergy kind of rallied the troops," Ullmark told NESN after the game. "It wasn't good enough those first 40 minutes, but those were past us, and we know if we go out there and play a solid 20 minutes and dominate the way we can, we can really put (the two points) in the bag."
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Bergeron's words clearly resonated (unsurprisingly) with the team because the Bruins played much better in the third period and allowed just four shots on net (two at 5-on-5) and zero goals over the final 20 minutes.
Ullmark also played a huge part in the 2-1 victory with 39 saves on 40 shots for his league-leading 35th win of the season.
The Bruins have a comfortable 13-point lead in the race for the Presidents' Trophy and home ice advantage throughout the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs with 12 games left in the regular season.
