Tuukka Rask receives a lot of undue criticism, but the Boston Bruins goaltender stepped up in the clutch and saved his team Friday night at Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa.
It took more than four hours, but the B’s won Game 5 of their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series against the Ottawa Senators in double overtime on a Sean Kuraly goal to force a Game 6 on Sunday.
Kuraly’s two goals obviously played a huge part in the 3-2 Bruins win, but Rask deserves an equal amount of credit for his performance.
Rask made many tremendous saves, and two of best came after regulation. One robbed Senators forward Viktor Stalberg in the first overtime period. Rask extended his pad to make a great kick save.
Rask’s breakaway save on Kyle Turris in double overtime was even more impressive.
The Bruins made a number of mistakes, and two of them led to breakaway goals. Those were the only tallies Rask allowed. The Finnish netminder made 41 saves on 43 shots overall, and he has a .951 save percentage since the start of the third period in Game 3.
Boston’s injuries on the blue line have not made it easy on Rask. The Bruins gave up 15 high-danger scoring chances in Game 5 alone, per Natural Stat Trick, but Rask was up to the challenge.
He’ll need to be just as good Sunday for the Bruins to force a do-or-die Game 7 back in Ottawa.
Here are some other notes from Bruins-Senators Game 5.
— Bruins captain and top defenseman Zdeno Chara played a team-high 36:46, including an astounding 7:55 on the penalty kill. Rask and Chara were two of the main reasons why the Bruins went 5-for-5 on the penalty kill, including two clutch kills in the final six minutes of regulation and another one 36 seconds into the second overtime.
— Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson played a career-high 41:51, including 6:50 on the power play and 2:07 on the penalty kill. The Bruins did a fairly good job preventing Karlsson from creating quality scoring chances, and for the first time all series he didn’t tally a point. He had a four-game point streak (five assists total) entering Game 5.
— David Pastrnak has tallied a point in four of the five games in this series. He’s scored two goals with two assists. One of those goals got the Bruins on the board in the second period of Game 5.
— Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy tallied his second point of the series with the primary assist on Kuraly’s winning goal. McAvoy’s shot from the point got through to Sens goalie Craig Anderson, who couldn’t corral the puck, allowing Kuraly to bury the rebound.
McAvoy also started just 25 percent of his 5-on-5 shifts in the offensive zone, which is tough for a 19-year-old rookie. Despite the difficult deployment, the Bruins still had a positive shot attempt differential (25 for, 24 against) with McAvoy on the ice at 5-on-5.
— It’s been a series of firsts for many Bruins.
— The Senators scored first for the fourth time in five games when Mark Stone converted on a breakaway in the first period. In 37 playoff games through Friday, the team that didn’t score first has won just 10 times. That’s a win percentage of 37.
The Bruins haven’t scored a single first-period goal in the series, but they are the only team in the 2017 Stanley Cup playoffs to win twice after not scoring first.
— The Providence Bruins beat the Wilkes-Barrie Scranton Penguins 2-1 in Game 1 of their first-round Calder Cup series. Jake DeBrusk and Danton Heinen scored for the P-Bruins. Zane McIntyre made 30 saves on 31 shots for Providence.
Thumbnail photo via Marc DesRosiers/USA TODAY Sports Images
