Devils slip past Bruins 4-3 OT win
NEWARK, N.J.APA.P.- Pavel Zacha scored his second goal of the game at 2:42 of overtime, and the New Jersey Devils snapped the Boston Bruins‘ four-game winning streak with a 4-3 victory on Tuesday night.
Jesper Boqvist and Yegor Sharangovich scored for New Jersey, which finished its home season with a 7-18-3 record. Mackenzie Blackwood had 33 saves in winning his fourth straight game. Patrice Bergeron, Taylor Hall, and Sean Kuraly scored for the Bruins, who blew two one-goal third-period leads. In more than a month, Jaroslav Halak made 17 saves in his first start as Boston fell to 10-2-1 in its past 13. Zacha’s winner came with the officials waiting to call a delayed penalty against Boston. The Devils got the extra skater on the ice, controlled the puck for about 30 seconds before Zacha beat Halak with a backhand in close for his career-high 15th goal.
The third period was wild, with the Devils twice rallying from one-goal deficits to tie the game.
Sharangovich tied the game 3-all at 12:41 of the period with a shot from the right circle after eluding Bruins defenseman Mike Reilly at the blueline.
Kuraly had put Boston ahead 3-2 when David Pastrnak’s pass deflected off his skate into the net. His goal came a little more than a minute after Boqvist tied the game at 2-all with a rebound in close at 9:10.
Bergeron, who has goals in three straight games, and Hall, a league MVP with New Jersey before being traded in December 2019, had wiped out a 1-0 deficit with second-period goals. Zacha had scored on a power play after Boston took three straight first-period penalties.
SCARY MOMENTS
Bruins leading goal scorer Brad Marchand and Devils center Jack Hughes, the top draft pick in 2019, went head-first into the boards in the second period. Marchand didn’t miss any time. Hughes left the ice for the final 1:45 of the period and returned for the third.
CARLO RETURNS
Bruins defenseman Brendon Carlo returned to the lineup after missing 18 games with an upper-body injury. He had missed 10 games after sustaining a concussion when boarded by Tom Wilson of Washington on March 5. He played two games and suffered a second injury on April 1.
NOTES: Devils rookie D Ty Smith aggravated an injury Monday and will not play. Veteran Matt Tennyson will replace him. … New Jersey D Jonas Siegenthaler, who has missed the past seven games because of COVID-19, has started skating with the team. Fellow D PKP.K.ban has missed the past nine because of the pandemic. … Bruins F Trent Frederic was in the lineup for the third time since April 6.
UP NEXT:
Bruins: Return home to face the Rangers on Thursday and Saturday.
Devils: At Islanders on Thursday to start a season-ending three-game road trip.
___
More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Sign up for Daily Newsletters
Copyright © 2021 The Washington Times, LLC.