Bruins center Curtis Lazar, left, and defenseman Charlie McAvoy, right, congratulate right wing David Pastrnak on his goal in overtime to give Boston a 3-2 win on Saturday in Ottawa, Ontario. Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press via AP
OTTAWA, Ontario — David Pastrnak scored on a one-timer off a cross-ice feed from from Taylor Hall at 2:42 of overtime, and the Boston Bruins beat the Ottawa Senators 3-2 Saturday night.
Jake DeBrusk and Brandon Carlo also scored to help the Bruins snap a two-game losing streak. Jeremy Swayman made 29 saves.
Pastrnak was held without a point in his previous four games and then was shut down for three periods in this game.
“Listen, every player wants to score in overtime, and I think he needed that,” Bruins Coach Bruce Cassidy said. “He’s getting frustrated with his opportunities, or lack of. For a goal scorer, you don’t want to go too long.”
Tim Stutzle and Nick Holden had goals for the Senators, and Anton Forsberg finished with 30 saves.
Tyler Ennis almost tied the game for the Senators early in the third period on the power play, but Ennis hit the post with an open net and Swayman made a glove save on Ennis’ follow attempt seconds later.
Eventually, Holden did tie it 2-2 for Ottawa as his shot from the slot beat Swayman with a crowd in front with 3:54 remaining to force overtime.
“I thought we were better getting into shooting lanes,” Cassidy said. “Not as many pucks travelled to the net, obviously. The last goal their (defenseman) beat us up the ice so that’s not a shooting lane issue, but I thought we did a better job with that.”
The Senators got off to a much better start then one week earlier when they were outshot 22-8 in the first period by the Bruins, who scored 45 seconds into the game. In the scoreless first period Saturday, the Senators were only outshot 11-9.
“A lot of things I was happy with. I thought we turned the puck over too much, but compete level was really high,” Senators Coach D.J. Smith said. “That was probably one of the most physical games in the last month maybe. Big hits. Fighting for the puck. There wasn’t a lot of room out there. It was a real game tonight.”
The Bruins eventually opened the scoring at 2:37 of the second when DeBrusk backhanded the puck out of the air and put a one-hopper past Forsberg for a 1-0 lead.
The Senators tied it just over four minutes later as Stutzle got the rebound off Artem Zub’s point shot that was tipped by Austin Watson and had an empty net to shoot at with Swayman out of position.
Later in the period the Senators had three great scoring chances as they kept the puck in the Bruins’ end for almost the entirety of a two minute 4-on-4. Stutzle, Brady Tkachuk and Nick Paul all nearly gave the Senators the lead during that stretch but were unable to beat Swayman.
“There were a lot of great efforts tonight,” Tkachuk said. “That’s a good team and they’ve been a good team for a bunch of years now, so it was fun to be part of that.”
Carlo, who was a game-time decision after cutting his wrist in the morning skate, gave the Bruins a 2-1 lead with just over a minute to play in the period. Forsberg dove out to try and cover the puck at the top of the crease but pushed the puck right onto the stick of Carlo, who had an empty net to shoot at.
Luckily the cut, while deep, didn’t cause severe damage.
“I just fell on the ice right in front of the net and as I was going down I caught my forearm I guess you would say,” Carlo said. “Luckily it was a nice clean cut in the right spot and didn’t reach all the way to the muscle, so that was good.”
NOTES: Stutzle played in his 100th NHL game, all with the Senators. … Bruins F Tomas Nosek played in his 300th NHL game and 43rd with the Bruins. … G Matt Murray, F Clark Bishop and D Dillon Heatherington were scratches for the Senators. F Anton Blidh and D Derek Forbot were scratches for the Bruins. F Brad Marchand was serving the fifth of a six-game suspension.
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