Vegas beats Boston to end historic win streak
via Winslow Townson
The Boston Bruins have been one of, if not the hottest team to start the 2022-2023 NHL season. One key factor in that hot start is that they broke the record for consecutive wins at home to open a season. The record was previously 11 games but the Bruins were able to push it up to 14, but it will not go beyond that. On December 5, 2022, the Vegas Golden Knights, a team that has been almost as hot as the Bruins, came into Boston and won the game 4-3 in a shootout.
The game was already an important one as it saw the return of Bruce Cassidy to Boston, who coached the team for the last six seasons, for the first time since leaving the team. Cassidy brought the team to the playoffs every season he was with them, including a Stanley Cup Final appearance in 2019 where they lost to the St. Louis Blues in seven games. Cassidy was let go by Boston on June 6, 2022, in a move that caught many off guard, and was hired by Vegas just eight days later on June 14, 2022. Cassidy has been finding immediate success with the Golden Knights, as they are currently third in the NHL standings.
Vegas got off to a quick start in Monday’s game as forward Paul Cotter scored a minute and a half into the game. The quick start continued when David Pastrnak committed a bad turnover that gave Jonathan Marchessault a breakaway which he scored on to give Vegas a 2-0 lead just five minutes into the game. Paul Cotter came out hot in the second period and scored just 51 seconds in to propel the Golden Knights to a 3-0 lead.
The Bruins were not going to go down without a fight though and Brad Marchand scored to start them on the way back just under 14 minutes into the second period. Boston kept fighting and were able to bring the deficit to just one when David Pastrnak scored with 0:25 left in the second period.
Boston had all the momentum going into the third period and it resulted in them tying the game just over three minutes in when Taylor Hall scored on the powerplay. The Bruins had a lot of chances to take the lead in the third, but Vegas goalie Logan Thompson stood on his head and the game went to overtime tied 3-3.
Boston dominated in overtime, outshooting Vegas 6-1, but Thompson stayed locked in and sent the game to a shootout. The two teams went back and forth in the shootout and in round five Reilly Smith, a former Bruin scored to end Boston’s record-breaking winning streak at home.
The Bruins will get a chance to exact revenge on the Golden Knights when they travel to Vegas to face them on December 11, 2022.
