With the game in their reach at the start of the third period yet again, the Bruins failed to make the right plays at winning time on Thursday night at the Garden.
Yet again.
The B’s coughed up three goals in the third period, plus an empty-netter, and fell to the Anaheim Ducks, 7-5, absorbing their sixth straight defeat in excruciating fashion. Again.
With the score tied in the third, the B’s gave up two goals before storming back to tie it quickly, only to allow the soul-sucking GWG less than a minute later.
“Embarrassing” was the word of the night. Joonas Korpisalo used it. Morgan Geekie used it. Same for Nikita Zadorov. Coach Marco Sturm concurred with them all.
Defense and goaltending were supposed to this team’s strength. They certainly were not on Thursday, and the team defense has been shoddy since the opening night win in Washington. We have not yet hit Halloween and it feels like this team is already for for its season, its very survival.
“This is devastating the way we’re losing these games,” said Charlie McAvoy, who was involved in a miscommunication on the game-winner. “It’s killing us. We’re fighting so hard and we just can’t stop beating ourselves. It’s pretty defeating right now.”
It won’t get any easier. The Colorado Avalanche, who outclassed the B’s in Denver last week, are in town on Saturday. If this continues much longer, it may soon become time to insert some kids down in Providence, no matter what it means in the win-loss column. But listening to Sturm, who is certainly not ready to start coaching for the distant future, it didn’t sound like that was an impending option.
“I don’t think too many changes can be made, let’s be honest. So the guys in here, including me, the guys in the room, we have to fix it,” said Sturm.
With score tied 3-3 in the third period, Viktor Arvidsson took an offensive zone tripping penalty at 1:37 and the Ducks made them pay. Troy Terry made a beautiful backhand pass through a crowd to Mikael Granlund and the veteran potted an easy goal into the half-empty net.
With McAvoy in the box for neutral zone interference, Fraser Minten had a shorthanded bid to tie it up when he stole the puck at the blue line but on his breakaway chance, he could not lift his backhand attempt over goalie Petr Mrazek.
The squandered chance cost them again when Stoneham’s Sam Colangelo took Ryan Poehling’s feed and beat Korpisalo for the first two-goal lead of the night.
Ross Johnston (44) of the Anaheim Ducks and Tanner Jeannot of the Boston Bruins fight during the second period. (Photo By Matt Stone/Boston Herald)
But, for all their warts, the Bruins have resilience. They scored two goals in 25 seconds to tie the game. First, David Pastrnak scored on a long–range wrister on the power play and then, with 5:03 left in regulation, Morgan Geekie scored his second of the game when he took a feed from a rushing Zadorov.
But in a flashback from Tuesday’s debacle against Florida, they handed the lead right back 30 seconds later. With Nikita Nesterenko handling the right side, it appeared that McAvoy was exhorting Mason Lohrei to get out more aggressively on Nesterenko, and wound up leaving Troy Terry alone in front for what would be the GWG.
“Both guys want to do the same thing, pretty much and all of a sudden they got caught and it’s in our net. It’s not just there but they way we played our wall, too. We’ve got to be smarter than that,” said Sturm. “That’s one thing. When you give up seven, you can’t win a hockey game. Especially not us.”
Is the team still struggling to grasp his system?
“That’s a good question. If you look at the goal, you would say yes. The frustrating part is, we’ve done it so many times, we talked it over so many times and in certain situations, when you’re under pressure almost, that’s where we struggle the most,” said Sturm.
Mikael Granlund finished it off with an empty-netter.
After the brutal loss, the players were in a soul-searching frame of mind. Geekie recognized the precipice this team may be on already, despite the fact that there are 73 games left. The winger, who scored a pair, sounded the alarm bell.
“It’s tough to be glass half-full, to be honest with you,” said Geekie. “I think everybody’s sick of it in here — the new guys, the guys that were here last year and went through everything and saw everybody get shipped out at the deadline. There is a lot of season left. You can’t ruin your season at the start, but it can get out of hand pretty quick and I think that’s what’s going to happen if we don’t turn things around. It’s a great group of guys in here but the reality is what we saw last year when you don’t perform and that’s the way things seem to be going.”
The opening 20 minutes was a period of swings. The Bruins burst out of the gate and took the first lead at 2:10. Anaheim goalie Petr Mrazek, getting just his second start of the season, left a fat rebound of a Pavel Zacha shot for Casey Mittelstadt, who got under defenseman Pavel Mintyukov’s stick check to put home his third of the season.
The B’s were firing away early and Mrazek was giving up rebounds, but the B’s couldn’t get to another one before the period was out.
The young and talented Ducks found their footing eventually and started creating some good chances. In one sequence, Korpisalo came up with an excellent save on Alex Killorn down the slot and then lucked out when Cutter Gauthier heeled another glittering chance from the same area.
But there was nothing Korpisalo could have done on Anaheim’s tying goal at 8:06. Defenseman Drew Helleson came down from his right point position and nobody picked him up when Lohrei followed another Duck out high. From a bad angle, Helleson fired a shot that went off McAvoy’s skate and in.
The B’s kept firing pucks at Mrazek in the first – they held a 19-12 advantage on the shot clock – but the teams went into the first intermission even at 1-1.
On the first shift of the second period, Korpisalo was forced to make a great save on Nesterenko, who appeared to have the netminder down and out but he hit Korpisalo in the mask.
Morgan Geekie (39) of the Boston Bruins celebrates his tying goal during the third period, but the Bruins lost 7-5 to Anaheim at the TD Garden. (Photo By Matt Stone/Boston Herald)
The B’s regained the lead at 8:49 on a good shift from the first line. After some pressure, McAvoy picked off a desperation clear in the neutral zone and gave it back to Pastrnak at the blue line. Pastrnak paused briefly for some help and dished to Geekie, who beat Mrazek with a wrister from the high slot for his fourth.
They were so close to taking a two-goal lead shortly after that when Jeffrey Viel set up Minten in front, but Mrazek came up with his stop of the game.
And wouldn’t you know it, the Ducks then tied it up shortly after that when former Boston College star Gauthier beat Korpisalo with a long range wrister at 11:29.
Tanner Jeannot — signed to a five-year, $17 million deal in the offseason — had not gotten into a fight yet this season, but he did not ease his way into his first bout, taking on Ducks’ 6-5 Ross Johnston, one of the toughest guys in the league. The two chatted at the red line during warmup and they eventually found each other at 12:14 of the second. In a true heavyweight clash, the combatants landed their share of heavy blows but eventually Jeannot started landing more consistently until they both ran out of gas.
But the B’s didn’t get the bump they needed from it and, at 15:24, the Ducks took their first lead of the game. After an extended defensive shift for the Minten line, aided by an icing, Jacob Trouba came down from his right point spot and sneaked a shot through Korpisalo’s glove arm and body for the 3-2 advantage.
One soft goal deserved another, and the B’s got one on their own on their first power play after Mintyukov high-sticked Elias Lindholm. Lohrei fired a quick shot on net that somehow eluded Mrazek for Lohrei’s first at 17:10 to tie it up going into the third.
The B’s held a 32-18 shot advantage through two but the Ducks were getting some high-grade chances. And in spectacularly frustrating fashion, they pulled away from the B’s in the wild third.
While acknowledging the difficulty of the mistake-filled losses, Zadorov tried to strike a hopeful — if challenging — note.
“Tomorrow is a new day,” he said. “You’re playing in the best league in the world, you have the best job in the world. You go out there, you work your balls off, excuse me for the language, but that’s how we do it in here. It’s Boston Bruins hockey. You have to go out and wear this jersey with pride. Saturday, why not? We’re playing the best team in the league. They’re coming in here, it’s a Saturday afternoon game, a lot of people will be watching this game. So why not (turn it around) that day?”
But with this team thus far this season, everything is easier said than done.
Originally Published: October 23, 2025 at 9:52 PM EDT