BSJ Game Report: Islanders 4, Bruins 3 (OT) - New York spoils fans' return to TD Garden

Everything you need to know from the Bruins’ 4-3 overtime loss to the Islanders in quickie form, with BSJ insight and analysis:

Box Score

HEADLINES

Isles spoil fans return to TD Garden

For the first time in 383 days, Bruins fans once again congregated on Causeway Street and cheered on their club from the stands — with the loosening of COVID-19 safety guidelines allowing TD Garden to fill its bowl up to 12 percent capacity, starting with Thursday's matchup against the Islanders.

And while the 2,191 fans in attendance certainly got their money's worth thanks to a late equalizer from Anders Bjork, the Bruins were not able to seal the deal and send the crowd home happy — as Anthony Beauvillier potted a loose puck past Jaroslav Halak just 21 seconds into overtime to give New York a 4-3 victory. Boston's woes against the Islanders continued on Thursday, with the B's now just 0-3-2 against the top team in the East Division this season.

While many of the Bruins' scoring outputs this season have been headlined by the usual suspects like David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron, the opening 20 minutes of Thursday's matchup saw a couple of depth pieces light the lamp for Boston — with Karson Kuhlman firing a puck past Semyon Varlamov from a tight angle just 11:42 into the contest to give Boston a 1-0 lead.

Kuhlman's first regular-season tally since Feb. 4, 2020, was soon complemented by another B's skater snapping an extended goal drought — with Steven Kampfer uncorking a power-play blast from the blue line that found twine at 17:35 in the first, with more than two years separating the veteran defenseman from his previous regular-season goal (3/23/19).

But despite a promising start in which both the Bruins and their raucous group of fans were buzzing, that momentum didn't carry over into the second, especially after Boston failed to land a potential knockout blow against Varlamov during a four-minute power play stretch. As expected, New York countered in short order, with the subsequent rush back during 5v5 play leading to J.G. Pageau's 11th goal of the season — five of which have come against Boston in just six games.

Sure enough, that shift in play carried over into the third — with Josh Bailey sniping one past Halak at 4:33 before Oliver Wahlstrom gave New York its first lead of the evening with just 2:56 left in regulation after some leaky netfront defense. Yet another regulation loss appeared to be in the cards for the B's, but Bjork picked a good time to tally his first goal since Feb. 10 — with the winger burying a feed from Charlie Coyle to force overtime.

Unfortunately, things went south in a hurry during the extra period of play — as Coyle was caught flat-footed and Halak was unable to clear a skittering puck in the blue paint, leading to Beauvillier's game-winner just 21 seconds into the frame.

B's lose Rask to injury once again

While that failed four-minute power play might have been the game-changing sequence in Bruce Cassidy's eyes, the swing in momentum might have occurred just a few minutes earlier, as Tuukka Rask was forced from the game after one period of play due to an upper-body injury. Halak, suddenly pressed back into service, relinquished four goals on 21 total shots.

Postgame, Cassidy didn't have an update for Rask — who missed the previous six games after appearing to tweak something in his back way back on March 7. Far from ideal for a Bruins team that very well could have to use Dan Vladar in the near future once again.

https://twitter.com/emarinofsky/status/1368719786709024782

TWO UP

Anders Bjork: After struggling to consistently stay in the lineup for the past month, Bjork put together one of his best outings of the season. His tally helped Boston earn at least a point in the standings, but the winger was active and had his feet moving on just about every shift out there on Thursday. In Bjork's 12:31 of 5v5 ice time, Boston held a 10-4 edge in shots on goal.

Karson Kuhlman: Another depth option that impressed on Thursday, Kuhlman gave the TD Garden crowd its first jolt of life with his first-period tally off of a tough angle. Unfortunately, Kuhlman exited the game after just 9:00 of ice time — with a rocket of a shot from Ryan Pulock hitting him square in the hand and sending him to the room for treatment.

https://twitter.com/ConorRyan_93/status/1375229868795908097

THREE DOWN

Connor Clifton: While Clifton has filled in admirably on a shorthanded D corps this season, he needed to be a lot better on this sequence — which ended in a momentum-shifting tally from J.G. Pageau in the second period.

https://twitter.com/RTaub_/status/1375242171016753155

Netfront defending: There are multiple culprits worthy of a spot here, but as a collective group, Boston's netfront presence was severely lacking all night — allowing the Isles' to generate quality looks against both Rask and Halak. Boston needs big bodies like Jeremy Lauzon and Brandon Carlo back sooner rather than later.

Jaroslav Halak/Charlie Coyle: Might be better to just burn the tape from this entire OT sequence.

https://twitter.com/Sportsnet/status/1375270055806705666

PLAY OF THE GAME

https://twitter.com/ConorRyan_93/status/1375261344753184772

PARTING THOUGHTS

What else was it going to be? It was great to have fans back in the barn on Thursday.

https://twitter.com/ConorRyan_93/status/1375222332705345542

https://twitter.com/ConorRyan_93/status/1375223439871639553

QUOTE OF THE DAY

https://twitter.com/ConorRyan_93/status/1375266576463716353

LOOKING AHEAD

The Bruins will continue their seven-game homestand on Saturday with a matinee matchup against the lowly Sabres. Puck drop is scheduled for 1 p.m.