In a twist to the holiday shopping season, the Bruins in the third period Saturday night unwittingly found themselves in the middle of a two-for-one sale on Causeway Street.
Morgan Geekie scored twice in a span of 11 minutes — only to have his first one wiped off the board because of an offside infraction — and ultimately it was his second of the third period, a one-timer from the slot with OT approaching, that delivered the Bruins a 3-1 win over the down-and-out Buffalo Sabres.
Attention, TD Garden shoppers: the two-for-one sale did the trick, albeit the hard way.
The win, on a night when the Bruins were decidedly off their game and heavy-legged after a five-game road trip
that ended Thursday in Edmonton, lifted the Black-and-Gold to five games over hockey .500 (18-13-4) for the first time this season.
It also left Joe Sacco’s charges with a .571 points percentage, an impressive renaissance from the .475 start (8-9-3) that led to Jim Montgomery’s dismissal after 20 games. With the Christmas break approaching, and 47 games to go on the schedule, the Bruins are a far more viable playoff contender than
when Sacco was put in charge of the bench on Nov. 19.
“It’s just one of those things — it happens all the time,” said Geekie, acknowledging a degree of disbelief when his first goal was scrubbed from the board. “Video coaches across the league know what they’re doing. You know, that [stinks], but it’s kind of a testament to the resiliency in the room.
“Once that got called back I think we played the best 10-ish minutes or whatever was left in the game. We grew to our game and we’ll definitely try to start a little faster next game.”
Pastrnak, who finished the night with two assists, noted he was blatantly and regrettably offside on Geekie’s first strike. All part of the game, said the elite Czech winger.
“It happens on both sides … and it clearly was offside,” said Pastrnak. “Nothing you can do, obviously. Sometimes it’s tougher on the individual, like I was a part of it, but as a team, you are just moving forward. Offside, nothing you can do, you move forward.”
It would have been Geekie’s seventh goal of the season. It would have been a 2-1 Bruins lead. Instead, it ended up an asterisk on a night when the Bruins struggled to find legs and scoring hands, but still squeezed out the 2 points.
The Bruins are back in action Monday night at the Garden vs. the Capitals, their final game prior to the Christmas break.
Joonas Korpisalo, who made eight saves in the opening period, made his best of the period only 39 seconds after Coyle potted the go-ahead goal. Nicolas Aube-Kubel, set up with a sharp backdoor feed, squeezed off a shot in the low slot and the alert Korpisalo nabbed it with his glove. Timely stop by the Finnish goaltender. He finished with 19 stops and was the key reason the Bruins never trailed (for a 12th time this season).
The only puck to get by Korpisalo, JJ Peterka’s 1-1 equalizer, came 18:23 into the second — with Oliver Wahlstrom in the penalty box.
“In this league, any time you can come away with two points and get a win, it’s a victory,” said Sacco. “We weren’t at our best tonight … and Buffalo played well … but we stuck with it, got timely saves from our goalie, and in the third period we turned it around. We flipped the switch a little bit.”