Bruins push through in third period, edge Devils

NEWARK, N.J. — Tuukka Rask was on the bench, taking a breather after starting the previous night against Buffalo.

Patrice Bergeron retreated to the penalty box once he flipped the puck into the Prudential Center stands at 14:18 of the third, giving New Jersey a chance to tie the game. Brad Marchand had failed to slow Taylor Hall’s second-period advance toward the net after he coughed the puck up to Nico Hischier in the neutral zone.

In other words, the Bruins’ stars were either unavailable or struggling against the Devils.

The Bruins are marching toward the playoffs, however, partly because of their depth.

If not for the prime-time play of usual supporting actors Anton Khudobin, Adam McQuaid, or Tim Schaller, the Bruins would not have slipped out of Newark with a 5-3 win over the hard-charging Devils. New Jersey was the better team for most of the night. The Devils’ 66-44 advantage in shot attempts underscored how much they controlled the puck while the Bruins gave it away.

But the worker bees, led by Khudobin, gave the Bruins 2 more points than they probably deserved.

“I thought it was a bit of a learning curve for a few of them tonight,” coach Bruce Cassidy said of his young players. “But tonight, I think our goaltending was very, very good. It has to be on the road. Usually the home team has some pop and will attack.”

The barrage started immediately for Khudobin. Hall, who outplayed Marchand for most of the game, had a breakaway early in the first period that Khudobin turned back. Several minutes later, Travis Zajac was given a penalty shot after Bergeron bothered him enough to deny him a clean sniff on a partial breakaway. Khudobin stood tall against Zajac, not biting on the forehand deke and staying tight to get in front of his backhand attempt at 6:06.

“It felt great. It always feels good when you’re winning,” Khudobin said. “It’s a really tough building to play in. They were desperate, too. They lost [Saturday] night. We lost [Saturday] night. I was expecting that. It was hot today. I think our guys were catching that, too. I felt it was pretty hot. Luckily I got a couple saves when I needed.”

The Devils kept catapulting high-quality pucks on net. Khudobin couldn’t do anything to stop Miles Wood on the breakaway at 16:26 of the first, just after the forward stepped out of the penalty box, that tied it at 1. Hall tucked in a net-front strike at 0:31 of the second that tied it at 2. Following Marchand’s neutral-zone turnover, Hall found Kyle Palmieri streaking backdoor for a roof job at 11:07 of the second, that tied it again, this time at 3.

But Khudobin slammed the door on everything else. Even when his teammates insisted on swinging said door wide open for the Devils to enter.

“I don’t think we managed the puck well,” Cassidy said. “Clearly it was a spillover from [Saturday] night. We’re getting away from what we do well, which is be hard to play against, not give up odd-man rushes. They have a lot of team speed, and they used it to their advantage. We weren’t able to slow them down in the appropriate areas early on and at the blue line. I think our breakout execution wasn’t where it needed to be, so they recovered some pucks off that. If we’re cleaner there, they’re backchecking and reloading as opposed to attacking. We have to clean that area up.”

While Khudobin was kicking out would-be goals, Schaller scored on a shot that Eddie Lack thought he had covered. The breakdown started when Lack and Will Butcher botched an exchange behind the net. Even though the first period was about to expire, Schaller kept his forechecking jets on and jumped on the loose puck. The left wing backhanded the puck on net. Lack dove to get in front of it, but only gloved it once the puck crossed the line. Video review confirmed referee Trevor Hanson’s on-ice call: Schaller’s shot had gone into the net with three seconds left in the period, giving the Bruins a 2-1 lead.

“He’s an effort player,” Cassidy said. “Ninety-nine times, nothing comes out of it. But the one that did, it was a big difference for us. It gave us a lift going into the intermission. Good for him.”

McQuaid, scoreless on his 20 previous shots, did not uncork a beauty with his 21st. He was off balance. McQuaid didn’t want to cross paths with Riley Nash, who was skating in the other direction. The puck fluttered off his blade. He was not shooting to score. But the timing of McQuaid’s shot qualified it as artwork.

With 8:05 remaining in regulation, McQuaid’s tumbler from the right point fluttered past Lack for the deciding goal.

“The puck was kind of bouncing,” McQuaid said. “Nash was skating up the ice toward me. So I tried to give him some space. Trying to read the play, whether he was going to move or not. He kind of did late. More so just trying to keep the puck in and get it toward the net. Got a good bounce.”