ST. PAUL, Minn. — For openers, it wasn’t a bad road trip for the Bruins.
Just 24 hours after beating the Jets in Winnipeg’s home opener, the Bruins couldn’t pull off the double play, falling, 4-1, to the Wild in their home opener at Grand Casino Arena Saturday night.
Boston jumped out to a quick lead with Tanner Jeannot potting his first off an exquisite between-the-legs, through-the-slot feed from Mark Kastelic.
It was the highlight play of a near-perfect first-period for the Bruins. Unfortunately for them, Minnesota goalie Jesper Wallstedt was perfect the rest of the way, stopping the next 26 Boston bids.
Boston (2-1-0) couldn’t sustain the momentum it established over the first 20 minutes and things got away from them in the middle period.
Minnesota (2-0-0) struck for a pair of power-play goals in the second, the first a snapper from sniper Kirill Kaprizov and the second a dart from the blue line from the Quinn Hughes.
The Hughes goal was a killer as it came after the Bruins had killed Minnesota’s 1:52 five-on-three power-play as Nikita Zadorov took a slashing penalty and Connor Clifton a trip just eight seconds later. Hughes goal came with two seconds left on Clifton’s infraction.
“Yeah, it was really tough — especially the second [goal], because we killed a five-on-three against, and we lose the face off and all of a sudden it’s in your net,” said coach Marco Sturm. “It feels like it’s almost like [the kill was] for nothing, right? So yeah, special teams probably was the difference today, both ways.”
The Bruins were shutout on their three power plays.
Jared Spurgeon and Kaprizov (empty-netter) finished the scoring in the third.
“We dominated the first, got away from it. And second, they took it to us, put us on our heels, a couple penalties,” said Clifton. “Obviously that penalty I took. Unfortunately, I’m trying to make a play on the puck. I feel like I get tripped and I trip him up, obviously a penalty, so that’s pretty unfortunate.”
Some other observations from the North Star state:
Spoiled effort
Michael DiPietro made his first start of the season in the Boston net and he was terrific. Making his first NHL start since January 2022, DiPietro stopped 26 shots and put on an acrobatic performance that conjured memories of Tim Thomas.
“Obviously not the outcome that I wanted and I own that. I just got to be better and continue to work and obviously try my best,” said DiPietro, who was at his best during the five-on-three. “So yeah, obviously this stings. Never want to give up the first loss for the team for the season. So, obviously I’m going to wear it, but yeah, just want to improve, get better for them and hopefully be better next time.”
Shoot first
Once they fell behind, the Bruins tried to be too perfect, often passing up shooting opportunities in favor of passes that too often missed the mark.
“We can start with me, I guess,” said David Pastrnak. “I definitely want to be more direct, shoot more pucks. Overall, we’re not creating enough to give [pucks] away. So, once we get there [in the offensive end], we should obviously be more direct and shoot the puck more.”
Experimenting continues
Looking to jumpstart the power play, Sturm subbed Elias Lindholm in for JJ Peterka. Lindholm had been a mainstay on the top unit for the last two seasons.
“We thought about it even this morning. It’s just we need our power play. We need [Lindholm] again. And these guys been together for a while,” said Sturm. “With that short training camp, that was not much time we feel like. So, we want to give him a little bit of comfort. Guys should know each other and that’s why we changed it.”
Additionally, Sturm threw Fraser Minten into the top center spot in place of Lindholm, between Pastrnak and Peterka, in the third period.
“Just looking for something,” said Sturm. “We kind of got stuck a little bit after they scored and I was just shortening the bench a little bit and try to get something out of it.”
Special talent
Hughes’s ability to move horizontally along the blue line while quarterbacking the power play is mesmerizing. It’s almost as though he’s floating. His ability to control the game like few others is why he will be cashing in (think Cale Makar-like dough) at the end of the season.
“He’s a very offensive defenseman, so he creates a lot for them and you’re going to respect him. They are a four or sometimes even five-man attack all the time,” said Pastrnak. “They move around and they’re good skaters, so they can recover well. But we definitely didn’t take enough advantage of how aggressive they were. Should have created more offensively with the way they’re aggressive in the O-zone.”
Jim McBride can be reached at james.mcbride@globe.com. Follow him @globejimmcbride.