The Boston Bruins won’t remember their inaugural trip to face the Utah Hockey Club fondly.
The Bruins coughed up a one-goal lead in the third period and then watched as Michael Kesselring sniped a shot past Jeremy Swayman to lift Utah to a 2-1 overtime win at the Delta Center on Saturday night.
The Bruins were complicit in defeat as turnovers were by far their biggest issue — and a recurring theme in their three losses this season. Boston registered a season-high 22 giveaways, allowing Utah to steal a win away from the Bruins.
“We never felt like we were in control of the game,” Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery told NESN’s Andy Brickley, as seen on the network’s postgame coverage. “We were turning the puck over too much and our puck support, really up until about five minutes before we gave up the tying goal was actually the best that we’ve played with puck support and puck possession.”
Morgan Geeke, who returned to the lineup after being a healthy scratch against the Colorado Avalanche, notched a team-high four turnovers. David Pastnrak, Matthew Poitras and Mason Lohrei weren’t far behind with three giveaways each.
The Bruins certainly needed better puck possession, especially against a skilled team like Utah. Turning the puck over fueled Utah as the Bruins tried to play catch up to their opponent’s high-end speed.
“It’s really about smarter puck play,” Bruins captain Marchand told reporters, as seen on NESN postgame coverage. “We turned a lot of pucks over at the blue lines or in the neutral zone and they reloaded and kind of came at us with speed. I think if we made stronger plays up the wall and put it in deep and played behind them, made their skill guys play down low, it kind of limits that a little bit. But we didn’t do a good enough job with that.”
The good news is the Bruins can use the loss against Utah as a learning experience and put it to good use when they face faster teams in the future. It was a tough lesson to learn and prevented Boston from securing two points, but the Bruins aren’t going to dwell on it.
“We’ll look over some film (Sunday). We already moved on,” Swayman told reporters, as seen on NESN postgame coverage. “We take the positives and move on. That’s what’s so special about our group. So, onto the next.”
Here are more notes from Saturday’s Bruins-Utah Hockey Club game:
— How many people would have had Cole Koepke as Boston’s second-leading goal scorer through six games? Probably no one. The Bruins newcomer notched his third goal of the season in the second period when he beat Connor Ingram through the five-hole. Koepke scored just one goal in 26 games with the Tampa Bay Lightning over the last two seasons.
“Me and (Marchand got) a little bit of a break and he kind of beat out one of their guys and got like a first touch to me,” Koepke told reporters of his goal, as seen on NESN postgame coverage. “Just went into one-on-one. I knew Marchy was coming on on his down stick side, so I just tried to get his far side and either have it go in like it did or hopefully a rebound would pop out his side.”
— Nikita Zadorov is filling up the stat sheet, but not in the way the Bruins hoped. The 6-foot-6, 248-pound defenseman committed another penalty against Utah, giving him at least one penalty in each of Boston’s first six games. Zadorov did compile a team-high four hits in the loss.
— Swayman did nearly everything he could to lead the Bruins to a win. He came through with 30 saves, including a few highlight-reel stops, and his effort didn’t go unnoticed by Montgomery.
“Jeremy Swayman was our best player tonight,” Montgomery told Brickley. “I thought he was very sharp, I thought he was reading plays and he gave us an opportunity to try to win in overtime.”
— The Bruins close out their three-game road trip Tuesday against the Nashville Predators. Puck drop from Bridgestone Arena is scheduled for 8:45 p.m. ET, and you can watch the game, plus an hour of pregame coverage, on NESN.
