The Boston Bruins ended their three-game skid at the TD Garden on Thursday, February 29th. Morgan Geekie scored his first career hat trick, and Mason Lohrei scored the go-ahead goal in the 5-4 victory against the Vegas Golden Knights.
Golden Knights lineup against the Bruins:
Brisson – Karlsson – Marchessault
Barbashev – Stephenson – Amadio
Cotter – Roy – Kolesar
Morelli – Froese – Rempal
Martinez – Pietrangelo
McNabb – Theodore
Hague – Whitecloud
Hill
Thompson
Bruins lineup against the Golden Knights:
Marchand – Coyle – Pastrnak
van Riemsdyk – Zacha – DeBrusk
Heinen – Geekie – Frederic
Lauko – Boqvist – Brazeau
Grzelcyk – McAvoy
Lohrei – Carlo
Wotherspoon – Shattenkirk
Swayman
Ullmark
Opening the scoring and getting Boston the 1-0 lead, Morgan Geekie scored his 11th goal of the season at 5:26 of the first period. He finished off a stretch pass from Trent Frederic on a breakaway. Just 30 seconds later, Jesper Boqvist made it a 2-0 lead off a backhanded pass from the goal line from Jakub Lauko, who sent the puck to him in the slot. Geekie pushed it to 3-0 off David Pastrnak’s cross-ice feed to score a one-timer.
Paul Cotter put Vegas on the board early into the middle frame at 18:12. In the left circle, Cotter batted the puck out of the air for his seventh goal of the season. Alex Pietrangelo cut it to 3-2 when he scored on his third rebound attempt after the first two had been stopped in front by Jeremy Swayman. Completing his first career hat trick, Morgan Geekie gave the Bruins a 4-2 with 3:28 remaining in the second… he tipped in David Pastrnak’s shot at the doorstep. Soon after Geekie’s third, Michael Amadio cut it to 4-3 with his 11th goal of the season when he scored from the slot.
At 14:59 of the third period, Chandler Stephenson tied the game at 4-4 on a short-handed breakaway. Mason Lohrei gave the lead back to Boston on the power play from the right circle with a one-timer at 4:37 for the 5-4 final.
Morgan Geekie on his first career hat trick: “It’s something I’ll never forget for sure. It’s one of those things you always hope will happen but not something you ever put weight on… It’s not something that happens every day so I’m definitely going to cherish it for sure.”
Mason Lohrei on the win, and the importance and intensity of games: “Great, obviously. A huge step… It’s been a struggle lately but that’s something we take a lot of pride in… add that to our game and keep going here,” – “I remember at the beginning of the year, ‘Monty’ (Jim Montgomery) saying how every 10 games, the league gets harder, and that’s the truth. Definitely deeper into the season here, games seem like they mean a lot more, so going out there and executing and getting wins is awesome.”
Notes:
– Both David Pastrnak and Kevin Shattenkirk had two assists… Jesper Boqvist has seven points in the past seven games (three goals, four assists).
– Jeremy Swayman made 32 saves for Boston, and Adin Hill made 27 saves for Vegas.
– Jim Montgomery hit 100 career Bruins wins
– The Bruins’ six-straight streak of games ending in overtime or shootouts ended.
– Chandler Stephenson had a goal and an assist… Jonathan Marchessault extended his point streak to four games (eight points; four goals, four assists) with an assist. Marchessault became the first player to reach 400 points with the Vegas Golden Knights (182 goals and 218 assists in 492 games)… Alex Pietrangelo became the ninth active defenseman to reach the 600 NHL point milestone (144 goals, 456 assists).
