Bruins comeback attempt fails, they fall to Vegas, 6-5

The Bruins have proven through one week into the season that no they are not going to be an easy out like they were last year But unfortunately for them they re also proving that they re not the kind of band that should be trading goals with the likes of the Vegas Golden Knights After their furious comeback attempt from a three-goal deficit against the Tampa Bay Lightning fell short on Monday the B s unveiled themselves in a similar situation with the Knights on Thursday and came out with the same effect a close-but-no-cigar loss Despite the valiant efforts catch-up hockey does not become them They have to play a sounder defensive challenge than they have the last two games After falling behind by three goals in the third period the B s pulled it back to within a goal but they could not pull even losing - at T-Mobile Arena in a highly entertaining battle Jeremy Swayman s goals against average took a big hit but he was definitely very good in making saves Sturm acknowledged Swayman s good event and the comeback but he wasn t really looking for silver linings If we want to play like that we re just never going to win Five goals for should be enough disclosed coach Marco Sturm bluntly Listen we cheated the challenge pretty much The first period was in fact OK but the mistakes we made over and over again we don t want to play that way We don t want to play back-and-forth We don t want to play like we did last meeting against Tampa It s way too several goals against and easy breakdowns I m almost glad it happened because it displayed have work to do And we just can t play that way The B s enjoyed a terrific tournament from their bottom six the third and fourth lines were on the ice for four of their five goals but needed more from the top six Coach Marco Sturm tweaked the top two lines flipping Pavel Zacha and Morgan Geekie but it did not produce the equalizer David Pastrnak had a power-play goal but he was minus- as were Casey Mittelstadt Geekie and Viktor Arvidsson The Bruins took two leads in the first period but could not hold either of them and went into the first break tied - For the fourth time in five games the B s opened the scoring Charlie McAvoy came down from his right point spot and sneaked through a shot that goalie Akira Schmid could not handle Tanner Jeannot parked at the top of the crease swept home the rebound for his second of the year just in But the Knights who would get more speed through the neutral zone than the B s would have liked tied it just later Jordan Harris pinched down low but the Knights gained control and attacked Sniper Pavel Dorofeyev got behind Arvidsson and snapped his league-leading sixth of the year over Swayman s blocker The B s continued to have their share of offensive zone time and regained the lead at when Nikita Zadorov s left point shot got past Schmid It appeared it went off Jeffrey Viel at the side of the crease but it was awarded to the big defenseman This time it took Vegas just to pull even again Swayman stopped Ben Hutton s blue line shot but the rebound went high in the air and dropped right to Cole Reinhardt and Reinhardt fired it right back for the equalizer More importantly the Knights had seized momentum by the end of the first and by of the second they had a two-goal lead First Jack Eichel gave the Knights their first lead of the championship at when his shot from the high slot deflected off something out front and Swayman appeared to lose sight if it until it dropped behind him Then with one of their best killers Elias Lindholm in the box for high-sticking the Knights doubled the lead Dorofeyev hit the shortside post and the puck bounced out front Through a crowd Tomas Hertl was able to jam it home the first PP goal the B s had allowed on the young season The B s got one back when after Mark Kastelic drew a penalty on old friend Jeremy Lauzon David Pastrnak scored his second of the year on the power play at Then came sequence in which it appeared the roof might cave in on them First Mikey Eyssimont was called for crosschecking and then just seconds later Pavel Zacha was whistled for a double-minor for high-sticking giving Vegas a -on- for then another one man-advantage for another Thanks to several big stops by Swayman and great PK work by Zadorov they killed it all off That s a really good five-man unit and they got a ton of looks And Sway bent but didn t break there It was a big kill at the time commented McAvoy That unusually buoyed them and they nearly tied it up on a Pastrnak shortside blast but Schmid made his best stop of the night The B s were feeling good about themselves when they got another power play but this time it blew up on them Mittelstadt tried to force a cross-ice pass to Pastrnak and Mark Stone picked it off Stone took off with William Karlsson on a partial -on- Stone s shot went off the post and dropped down in the crease perfectly for Karlsson to tap in the crushing goal that restored Vegas two-goal lead with left in the second That goal appeared to break the B s The Knights were all over them to start the third period earned a power play on a McAvoy high-stick and Karlsson pushed it to - on the PP with a too-easy rush to the net at But the B s bottom six did not give up and they cut the deficit to a mere goal with two goals in in First Kastelic beat Schmid with a high-wrister off a Sean Kuraly two assists plus- faceoff win The Schmid gave up a softy to Eyssimont from the right circle and with left in the third it was back to a one-goal lead Hertl gave the B s a power-play chance at for running into Swayman but they could not capitalize They never really applied any consistent pressure after that When Swayman was pulled for the extra skater Geekie wiped it out with a penalty and the comeback attempt was essentially over