The Boston Bruins scored two goals in the second period and potted an empty net goal with less than a minute to go in the third period, as they took down the Minnesota Wild by a score of 3-0 at the TD Garden on Tuesday night. The win marked two consecutive wins, and three in their last five, after they successfully handled the New York Rangers on Saturday.
Jeremy Swayman stole the show for the Bruins as he finished with 34 saves in the shutout effort, his third such result in the 2024-25 season. The victory was also the 97th of his young career with Boston.
First Period
For the first 10 minutes of the first period, the Bruins were unable to get a shot on goal with the Wild dominating all aspects of the game. However, after the 10-minute TV timeout, it was as if things shifted, and Boston turned everything up a notch and never looked back allowing just one more shot on goal to their opponents and racking up 14 of their own.
Later in the opening frame, Zach Bogosian was called for tripping, but luckily for Minnesota, its opponents were unable to capitalize on the advantage, and the score remained deadlocked at 0-0.
In the second period, Swayman finally got the support he needed from his offense.
Second Period
Despite both teams matching each other in shots on goal, it was the Bruins who got two past Wild goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, who was making what will most likely be his final start at the TD Garden.
Charlie McAvoy got the first tally of the game when he redirected a David Pastrnak shot past Fleury on the blocker side, giving Boston a 1-0 lead 5:46 into the second period. The goal extended Pastrnak’s point streak to 11 games, a streak in which he has scored 10 goals and tallied 14 assists. Just under 10 minutes later, Trent Frederic took a perfect cross-ice pass from Matt Poitras and snapped it home past Fleury from the left faceoff dot, extending the Bruins lead to 2-0.
Throughout the rest of the period—and the game—both teams exchanged blows and got seven power play chances combined, none of which were converted by either side, however.
Third Period
In the third period, it was a reversal of the first period with Minnesota taking over on the offensive side of the puck. Boston allowed its opponents to rack up 14 shots on goal, but Swayman denied each attempt and made it look easy. Fleury, however, only faced seven shots of his own and also stopped all seven.
The Wild also had three power-play chances in period but were denied on all accounts by the Bruins defense who clamped down and ramped up their play as the period wore on.
With 45.9 seconds left in the period and the net empty for the Wild, Morgan Geekie put the nail in the coffin when he sniped the puck into the empty net making the score 3-0.
What’s Next?
Boston is back at it on Wednesday night with a rematch of Saturday’s game when they take on the Rangers at Madison Square Garden, and Minnesota is back in action on Thursday when they are back at home when they take on the Carolina Hurricanes at the Xcel Center.
