10 shots, 10 saves & 2 points: Rask’s late-game heroics bail out shorthanded Bruins

Tuukka Rask’s recollection stood in stark contrast to what many saw minutes earlier on the TD Garden ice.

It was a sight that has struck fear in many goaltenders over the past year — a charging Mathew Barzal breaking into the zone, with the time and space to revert even the most refined netminder into a sprawling mess.

The odds weren’t in favor of Rask, especially against a player with the scoring prowess of Barzal (106 points in 108 career games played).

Boston’s goalie had a split second to react — with the wrong shift of the leg or flick of the wrist robbing Boston of a valuable point in the standings.

But, as Barzal flipped to the backhand with 1:39 remaining in overtime — Rask did not flinch, turning aside the Islanders star’s attempt with a blocker-side stop.

Rask’s save —  his fifth of the six total shots he’d gobble up during the extra period — kept a shorthanded B’s club in the fight, while bringing TD Garden to its collective feet.

Rask’s reaction to the same play? Well...

“Yeah, just a shot and a breakaway,” Rask said. “Shot and a breakaway, practice that a lot.”

Points come at a premium in the NHL these days, as do goals — at least if you’re the 2018-19 Bruins.

Without Patrice Bergeron anchoring arguably the top line in hockey and playmakers on the blue line like Charlie McAvoy still out of commission, Boston has had to grind out wins to stay afloat in the loaded Atlantic Division.

In their last seven games, the Bruins have either won or lost by a single goal — with the outlier being Monday’s 4-2 loss to Toronto, which had an empty-net goal by the Leafs. During that same stretch, Boston has only averaged two goals per game.

Despite holding a dominant 70-52 edge over the Islanders in overall attempts on Thursday, Boston’s offense once again stalled at TD Garden, with the club’s lone goal provided by its potent power play (29.8 percent).

With Boston’s D corps held together by duct tape and Bruce Cassidy juggling his forward lines on a nearly constant basis in search of a spark, the onus has largely fallen on Rask and Jaroslav Halak to keep the points coming off of their play in net.

Fair to say, Rask answered that call — and then some — in the closing minutes of Thursday’s tilt.



Rask was flawless in a matchup ultimately decided with a four-round shootout — with the B’s netminder going a perfect 10-for-10 in save opportunities beyond regulation time to close out a 2-1 win for the Black and Gold.

“It’s been tight games, I don’t know, the past five or six of them, but it builds character, and it’s good that we’ve been able to grind those games out and come out on top for the most part,” Rask said. “You’ve got to learn to win every different kind of way, and it’s just kind of part of the process.”

Overtime hasn’t been particularly kind to the B’s this season, with the club going 2-4 on the season due to some sloppy play with the puck.

But Rask was the equalizer on Thursday night, at one point turning aside a pair of Grade-A looks from Jordan Eberle and Barzal’s breakaway in the span of just 21 seconds. Seven seconds later, Rask once again denied Barzal, who wristed the puck through a clear shooting lane.



“Overtime, obviously, is an issue for us in terms of what we give up,” Cassidy said. "We’re not managing pucks well, we’re not reading rushes quick enough, and he made some huge saves.”

When five minutes of OT could not determine a victor, Rask continued to stand on his head — halting yet another Barzal attempt while turning aside shootout bids from Brock Nelson, Valtteri Filppula and Josh Bailey to set the stage for Ryan Donato’s eventual game-winner.

Since returning from a leave of absence earlier this month, Rask has given Boston the boost it so desperately needs — posting a save percentage of .944 in his last four outings.

So what’s been the cause for Rask’s turnaround?

“Mentally, he’s much more relaxed. Breaking him down technically, I don’t know,” Cassidy said. “I’m not the best guy to ask that. He looks better but maybe that’s because he’s stopping pucks and generally when you stop pucks you usually do look better. I think it’s just a case where he’s fresh and physically feels good and is ready to go in there.

“I think mentally he knows that this time of year he tends to play good hockey. I think that’s – when you’ve had a career as long as his, you know this is a good time of year when you find your game then maybe that’s part of it as well. He’s just confident in his game this time of year.”

For Rask, it looks as though he’s following the usual ebbs and flows that come with a long NHL campaign.

Closing out October with a .902 save percentage falls in line with Rask’s usual slow starts — with the goalie posting a sub-.900 save percentage in three of the past five seasons during October.

But if Rask can replicate last year’s showing down the stretch (31-6-3, .923 save percentage), Boston stands a chance of surviving a crippling stretch of injuries.

“Maybe I just don’t want to play in October,” Rask said of his slow starts. “I don’t know. You just kind of work hard in practice, try to get some shots and work with the goalie coach, and then when the game time comes, you try to be there. Some days you are; some days you aren’t, and the past few games I have. It’s a mystery; I don’t know. I want to do it every night.”