BSJ Game Report: Bruins 3, Oilers 2 - Ullmark, Grzelcyk lift Bruins past Edmonton

Everything you need to know from the Bruins’ 3-2 win over the Oilers, with BSJ insight and analysis:

Box Score

SHORT SHIFT

It wasn’t pretty, but two points are still two points at the end of the night.

Tied 2-2 in the closing minutes of regulation, Matt Grzelcyk picked a great time to bury his first goal of the season — with the B’s blueliner finding twine with 2:33 to go to lift Boston to a much-needed 3-2 win over the Oilers up in Edmonton.  

Brad Marchand and Jake DeBrusk also scored for the Bruins, who improve to 13-8-2 on the season. Linus Ullmark was fantastic in net for Boston, turning aside 41 of the 43 shots that came his way. 

The Bruins didn’t get much going as far as Grade-A chances against Stuart Skinner in the first period — not until Nick Foligno was sent to the sin bin for a rather light roughing call against Zach Hyman.

Just seconds later, the B’s dynamic PK duo of Marchand and Patrice Bergeron struck — with Bergeron feeding the puck ahead to Marchand on a shorthanded breakaway.  

Marchand promptly tucked his backhand shot past Skinner to put Boston ahead, 1-0, at 16:15 in the frame. 

A cross-checking call against Leon Draisaitl allowed Boston to pad its lead in the early stages of the second, with DeBrusk taking a feed from Taylor Hall and rifling it high against Skinner for his fifth goal of the season at 2:02.

But an Oilers roster still anchored by Connor McDavid and Draisaitl can only be contained for so long — with Draisaitl eventually snapping one past Ullmark from a tough angle on the power play to make it a one-goal game with 1:46 to go in the second. 

Sure enough, the Oilers’ league-leading power play earned another chance in the third off of a hooking call against Bergeron and made Boston pay once more — with Draisaitl beating Ullmark again to knot things up at 2-2.

This one seemed destined to follow a similar script as Wednesday’s shootout loss to Vancouver, but Grzelcyk had other plans — with the Charlestown native beating Skinner clean thanks to a scrum of skaters screening down low to give Boston the lead for good.

FOUR UP

Brad Marchand: When in doubt, you can usually count on Marchand for a momentum-shifting play, and he provided it with his shorthanded strike in the first. Thursday marked the 12th time that Marchand has opened the scoring in a game with a shorthanded goal — surpassing Peter Bondra, Bob Pulford and Mark Messier for the most such goals in League history.

Jake DeBrusk: There’s been both good and bad in DeBrusk’s game since making his trade request public, but the 25-year-old winger is at least producing at a semi-regular clip — with Thursday’s snipe standing as his second goal in four games. 

Matt Grzelcyk: On a night where a few other contributors (DeBrusk, Coyle Line) also broke through, it was good to also see Grzelcyk also get rewarded on the scoreboard. It was also great timing — with Grzelcyk’s game winner standing as Boston’s first 5v5 goal in 132:43 of ice time. 

Linus Ullmark: Two points wouldn’t be possible without Ullmark standing on his head, with the veteran stopping 41 shots in the victory. Don’t look now, but Ullmark is now 3-1-0 with a .938 save percentage over his last four games.

TWO DOWN

Taylor Hall: He had a power-play helper and contributed to Boston’s third-period rally with a strong shift leading up to Grzelcyk’s goal — but it was another largely underwhelming night for Hall, who finished with zero shots on goal in just 11:35 of ice time. He was benched for the final 8:30 of the second period.

Special teams: Granted, it’s a tall task going up against a power play like Edmonton’s, but Ullmark was still kicking himself postgame for coughing up two goals to Draisaitl. And down the other end of the ice, even with DeBrusk’s power-play tally, the B’s could have done a lot more damage on the man advantage — generating just two shots on goal in 5:26 of power-play TOI. 

LOOSE PUCKS

Not pretty: This was kind of a Bizarro Bruins game, given how most of the B’s contests have gone this season. For the first time in a long time, the B’s were outshot, 43-30, and really struggled to control the puck in the O-zone. And yet, despite those lopsided puck-possession metrics, the B’s still managed to gut out a win. 

Just goes to show what timely scoring and great netminding can do for you. 

Here comes … Tuukka? Will Tuukka Rask help this club? Certainly. But don’t look now — this current goalie corps is really elevating its game. As we noted above, Ullmark is now 3-1-0 with a .938 save percentage in his last four games. Jeremy Swayman? A .942 save percentage in his last five outings. A good problem to have, at least for right now.

PLAY OF THE GAME

PARTING THOUGHTS

Always good to light the lamp in front of your hometown crowd — especially when your pops is on the broadcast, as well.

LOOKING AHEAD

The Bruins will wrap up their road trip through Western Canada on Saturday with a matchup against the Calgary Flames. Puck drop is set for 10 p.m. from the Scotiabank Saddledome.