Second Round, Game 4: Boston 4 – Columbus 1
With the Bruins trying to avoid a 3-1 deficit in the series, they needed to change their ways, stop committing bad penalties, and turn over the puck in the bad areas of the ice. Well the first period was definitely an improvement to what we have seen from this team throughout this series. The Bruins would jump out to an early 2-0 lead only to allow Columbus to get within one on a fluke of a goal that should never have been allowed, but we’ll get into that in a little bit.
The scoring was started when David Pastrnak would get out of his rut for a moment anyway as he would fire a one-timer from the left circle past a sliding Sergei Bobrovsky.
A few minutes after the Pastrnak goal, the Bruins would go on their first of 3 power plays in the period and this would be the best of the three as Patrice Bergeron would finally beat Bobrovsky for the first time in this series and give the Bruins a 2-0 lead.
As the first period went on, the Bruins would go on two more power plays where they just looked terrible. They had very poor zone entries when they could even enter the zone and they were constantly chasing the puck back in their defensive zone. Columbus even had shorthanded opportunities in all 3 power plays but luckily would not sneak a goal in. They would eventually score past Tuukka Rask, but should the goal have counted? Absolutely not. The puck deflected over Rask and went up into the netting above the glass, but apparently only the Bruins players saw that because the refs didn’t blow the whistle and Columbus kept playing until the puck was in the back of the net, so credit to them to play until a whistle, but the refs blew that one big time. Dare I say, if only we could have reviewed it…
In the second period it was more of the same for the Bruins as they would have another two power play opportunities but were out shot by Columbus once again. The lack of power play production in this series is completely opposite of the Toronto series where they had the highest power play percentage in the first round. Now they can’t buy a power play goal. Credit where credit is due, the Blue Jackets have made it very hard, with very aggressive pressure and forcing many turnovers. If the Bruins want to survive in this series, they need to figure it out and have better possessions.
The heavy weight battle continued on to the third period where the Bruins needed to try and extend the lead and keep Columbus from tying the game. Heading into this game the Bruins were 5-0 in these playoffs when leading after two periods. As they tried to make it 6-0, the B’s would get a much needed cushion goal when Sean Kuraly would get the rebound of a shot intentionally wide by Zdeno Chara, and beat Bobrovsky.
With less than three minutes to play in the game, the Bruins would once again go on the power play and would finally break through again. Patrice Bergeron would score his second goal of the game after getting a rebounded David Pastrnak shot and sealed the win for the Bruins.
In this game we have to give a lot of credit to Tuukka Rask. I know a lot of Bruins fans have mixed feelings about Tuukka, but I’m here to tell you that Tuukka is good. He is very good and he is proving that in these playoffs. Although the Bruins scored 4 goals in this game, without Tuukka in net, I don’t think the Bruins would have won. He has been just as much a wall as Bobrovsky has, especially with this save on a penalty shot for Columbus in the first period.
We move on to Game 5. Series tied at 2 and returning to Boston, the Bruins will look to take the lead in the series and put Columbus on the brink of elimination. That game will be on Saturday at 7:15 pm.
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