Bruins takeaway: Pastrnak, Geekie heating up is very encouraging for B’s originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

The Boston Bruins haven’t managed to win back-to-back very often this season, and through the first 40 minutes of Tuesday night’s game against the Calgary Flames, it looked like the Original Six club wasn’t going to be able to win back . successive encounters.

The Flames led 2-0 at the start of the second period and 3-1 at the start of the third period. But the Bruins fought back, controlled the pace of the game, created plenty of scoring opportunities and eventually tied the game with goals from Morgan Geekie and Marc McLaughlin to force overtime. And then in OT David Pastrnak played the role of the hero with the game-winning score.

“I was really proud of our performance in the third period. I thought the guys showed a lot of determination and good attitude,” Bruins head coach Joe Sacco told reporters after the game.

“They worked hard in the third period. We did it right.

The Bruins have quietly won six of their last eight games and are now in third place in the Atlantic Division with a record of 17-13-3. They are 2-2-0 through four games of this five-game road trip, with the finale scheduled for Thursday night against the Edmonton Oilers.

Here are three takeaways from Boston’s overtime comeback win against the Flames.

David Pastrnak is heating up offensively

There is a tremendous amount of pressure on Pastrnak to be elite on offense every night, and this is especially justified given his global skill set, salary and past performance. But he is the only top-class offensive player on offense, which is why the Bruins need him as a constant factor, simply because there is no other forward on the roster who gives opponents a lot of fear.

After a – by his standards – slow start to the season, Pastrnak seems to be heating up. He played his best game of the season on Saturday in Vancouver when he scored four points (one goal, three assists) in a 5-1 win over the Canucks. And then on Tuesday, Pastrnak scored the winning goal in overtime.

“Just put the puck on 88 or 63 and then pray,” Bruins defenseman Nikita Zadorov told reporters after the game when asked about the feeling on the bench in OT. “So that’s the emotion. They are our best players. So put it in their hands and they will make it happen.

“Pasta, I think he had a three-minute shift, he could barely skate and he still achieved the goal. I think it shows how high his skill level is and what a great player he is in this league.”

Pastrnak is starting to look more like himself offensively, and that’s encouraging for the Bruins heading into Thursday’s showdown against the high-powered Oilers.

Morgan Geekie’s resurgence

Geekie was a valuable player for the Bruins last season as he could play both center and wing and provided much-needed scoring depth with 17 goals. He began the 2024–25 season as a second right winger, but failed to make much of an impact and was even injured a few times by former head coach Jim Montgomery.

Geekie has been playing a lot better lately. He scored Boston’s second goal against the Flames at 4:14 of the third period, giving him goals in back-to-back games for the first time all season.

He had a goal and an assist against the Canucks last weekend. And in his last six games, Geekie has four goals, two assists and 18 shots on goal.

Geekie only scored in his 12th game this season, and then he scored once in the next 10 games. But he’s playing with a lot of confidence now, which is exactly what the Bruins need. They still rank 26th with 2.61 goals scored per game, and for that number to improve, center forwards like Geekie will need to be more consistent on offense.

Bruins still need better starts

The ability to come back and win is needed, and the Bruins have been better lately at overcoming deficits and finding their game after a slow start. But catching up hockey often means losing hockey, and the Bruins need to start games much better to become a real threat in the Eastern Conference.

The B’s didn’t lead for a single second against the Flames. It was their fourth win of the season without being in the lead for a long time. In four of the last five games they actually had a zero second lead.

Boston didn’t allow a goal in the first period against the Flames, but Calgary had a 19-6 advantage in shot attempts, a 9-4 advantage in shots on net, a 6-2 advantage in scoring chances and a 4-1 advantage Extremely dangerous chance advantage in the 5-on-5 game in the first 20 minutes. And then the Flames took a 2-0 lead early in the second period (two goals in the first 81 seconds) and went into the second intermission up 3-1.

Entering the road trip, the Bruins trailed 2-0 after the first period against both the Jets and Kraken. They ended up losing those games by a combined score of 13-2. This season, the B’s have a minus-6 goal differential in the first period and are 21st at 585-26 in 33 games, according to Natural Stat Trick.

The Bruins have shown impressive resilience in overcoming some poor starts and picking up two points in some of those games, especially since the coaching change in November. But that is not a sustainable path to success.

“It felt like we still had a lot of confidence that we could come back,” Bruins captain Brad Marchand told reporters after the game. “A quarter is a long time in this league. Confidence and faith are dangerous. If you have that, you can do it. We’ve done it a few times recently when we’ve put pressure in the third period. This is who we are.” I’m starting to believe again that we can come back in situations like this.

“We have to get better at not getting into this situation and having the mishaps like in the second third. But at the end of the day the points are huge for us right now.”