Boston Bruins star David Pastrnak felt like he owed one to linemate Morgan Geekie.
After all, Pastrnak was the reason Geekie’s goal midway through the third period against the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday night got wipe off the scoreboard. The Sabres challenged the goal and Pastrnak was deemed offsides on video review.
“Yeah, my eyes were all on (Geekie) after that,” Pastrnak told reporters, per team-provided audio.
Geekie and the Bruins didn’t get down after the overturned call. And Pastrnak stuck to his promise and found Geekie again, and at a crucial time, too. Pastrnak dished a pass off on the power play to Geekie, who blasted a slapshot past Sabres goalie James Reimer with 1:45 remaining for the decisive goal in a 3-1 win over the Sabres at TD Garden.
“It’s just one of those things. It happens all the time with replay now and video coaches across the league they know what they’re doing,” Geekie told reporters, per team-provided audio. “It sucks, but it’s kind of a testament to the resiliency in the room.”
It wasn’t just Pastrnak seeking redemption that made him pass the puck over to Geekie in that situation. While the Bruins consistently try to get the puck to Pastrnak on the man-advantage, he believes Geekie is a terrific option as well.
“(Geekie) especially has a great one-timer and heck of a wrist shot,” Pastrnak said. “He’s a great shooter. I know that if I see him for a one-timer it’s going to be a bullet. So, I try to get it to him.”
The goal for Geekie was his seventh of the season and his fifth of the month. He put his goalless streak to start the season and benching far into the rearview mirror. And now playing alongside Pavel Zacha and Pastnrak on the second line, Geekie rediscovered his scoring touch to make an impact for the Bruins.
“It’s one of things where I felt like not a lot of things kind of went the team’s way, my way,” Geekie said. “A lot of internal belief I think is a big one. The guys in the room were great through everything. It speaks to the leadership group we have. I never felt on the outside looking in. Just one of things where I tried to stay on the gas and tried to get better every day, with whatever that may be.”
Here are more notes from Saturday’s Bruins-Sabres game:
— Joonas Korpisalo stood tall between the pipes, stopping 19 of the 20 shots in his direction. He is now 7-3-1 on the season with a 2.42 goals-against average and a .904 save percentage.
“I just try to do my best every time I get a chance to play,” Korpisalo told reporters, per team-provided audio. “Try to get the team some points. That’s all that matters.”
— Perhaps nobody needed a goal more than Charlie Coyle. He hadn’t scored in his last eight games going into the matchup with the Sabres. Coyle caught a break as he found a streaking puck coming his way as soon as he was let out of the penalty box midway through the first period. James Reimer’s stopped Coyle’s initial attempt on the breakaway, but Coyle stuck with it and with the puck still loose under Remier’s pad, he poked it home from his backside.
But the goal wouldn’t have happened without defenseman Nikita Zadorov. He made an intuitive play in the defensive zone to send the puck in Coyle’s direction as his penalty expired.
“My eyes lit up. That’s never happened to me,” Coyle told reporters, per team-provided audio. “You take an offensive zone penalty, you’re just hoping the guys kill it off. They did a great job. That was probably the only good part about it is us capitalizing on the other end. But it’s a testament to our guys who bailed me out and put me in a position to try to help the team. It’s a heads-up play by (Zadorov).”
— Brad Marchand extended his point streak to nine games thanks to potting an empty-net goal. Marchand registered five goals and four assists over that span and became just the third Bruins player in franchise history with a nine-game point streak at age 36 or older, joining Jean Ratelle and Johnny Bucyk.
— An underrated moment from the contest came from recently acquired Bruins forward Oliver Wahlstrom, who played his first game in a Boston uniform at TD Garden. The Maine native drew the penalty late in the third period which led to Geekie’s goal.
— The Bruins play one more game before Christmas as they host the Washington Capitals, who boast a 22-8-2 record, on Monday night night. Puck drop from TD Garden is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET. You can watch the game, plus an hour of pregame coverage, on NESN.
