We’re in prime time for the dog days of the NHL season, yet, the Boston Bruins and New York Islanders embarked on a playoff-like tilt on an unusually warm early-January evening.
The Bruins didn’t have the hottest of starts of this back-and-forth affair, but Tuukka Rask kept his team afloat through a rough 20 minutes of play. Bruce Cassidy’s squad found their skating legs in the second and engaged in a spirited back and forth contest filled with stellar goaltending, timely goals, near chances, and timely defensive plays on both ends of the ice.
It came to no surprise when the Bruins and Islanders went to overtime after Mat Barzal countered John Moore’s third-period tally following a defensive breakdown.