Boston Bruins Salvage Point Through Characteristic Third Period Dominance

Ultimately settling for the regulation tie/shootout loss Friday night in Buffalo, the Boston Bruins claimed a point in consecutive games for the first time in six weeks.

Not so coincidentally, more likely as a direct factor, they have outscored two consecutive opponents in the third period for the first time in seven weeks.

The Bruins still hold the NHL’s best scoring differential in the closing frame at plus-34. But in 17 games between Jan. 14 and Feb. 17, they were outscored, 21-15, within the final 20 minutes. On only four sparse occasions (all victories) in that span did they raise the upper hand in the third.

Dating back to Sunday’s loss at Minnesota, they have turned a superficially modest pivot back to normalcy with a cumulative 2-0 differential in their last three closing stanzas. They morphed a 3-2 advantage into a 4-2 victory at St. Louis on Wednesday and deleted a 1-0 deficit via Zdeno Chara’s power-play goal against the Sabres on Friday.

It is worth noting that, aside from Chara’s conversion, Sabres’ stopper Ryan Miller has allowed no goals on 71 shots-faced in 125 minutes-played over his two bouts with the Bruins dating back to the Milan Lucic incident Nov. 12.

There is no sense in dismissing the notion of effective, vengeance-driven motivation in bringing the Buffalo backstop to his stingiest stage. Especially when you size up the stats between the contesting teams in Friday’s third period.

In the midst of at least claiming the regulation point and forcing overtime, the Bruins landed 15 shots on net out of 24 attempts. They threw nine hits. They gave no pucks away after coughing up five turnovers in the first 40 minutes (including two by goaltender Tuukka Rask in the first 12:43 of action). And they maintained a pristine disciplinary record with zero penalties in the entire game.

Conversely, in their vain effort to build upon Andrej Sekera’s second-period icebreaker, the Sabres mustered five shots on 12 attempts in the third. They conceded three giveaways, one of which virtually led to Chara’s equalizer and another effectively amounting to Thomas Vanek’s high-sticking infraction in the final minute of regulation.

If they consistently dish up that level of intensity in what is usually the deciding phase of the game, the Bruins ought to replenish their long-elusive winning habit in a manner that poses as second nature. While it has been nothing spectacular on the scoreboard in the two latest outings, this is a favorable time for Boston to be whetting its blades in this department.

Only one other NHL team has racked up more third-period goals on the year than the Bruins. That would be their next adversary from Ottawa.

The Senators have tuned the mesh 80 times in the closing stanza and will host the first half of a home-and-home series Saturday with a fighting chance to supplant Boston for tops in the Northeast Division.

Still with three games in hand on the schedule, the Bruins can use the next two tangles to simultaneously build themselves a fresh wave of momentum and all but poke-check the Senators’ own destiny out of their clutch.

After more than a month of inconsistency, they proved late in Friday’s contest that they have the right foundation in place.