Carolina 6, Bruins 5 (OT)

 

The other day, I commented on Morgan Geekie's lack of recent scoring, and then last night, he came back in a big way, scoring three goals in what sadly turned out to be the Bruins third straight loss.

Geekie scored twice in the first period and again in the second, all even-strength goals, to complete his hat trick. Hampus Lindholm started the scoring with an goal early in the first, but the real heroics were Pavel Zacha's goal in the third to tie the game up and send it into overtime. Unfortunately, the Hurricanes scored in OT and took the win.

Swayman made 18 saves in the net before being pulled after allowing five goals, including three in the first nine minutes of the second period. Joonas Korpisalo stopped the 16 shots he faced in regulation, but the winning goal in OT managed to get past him.

The Bruins pick up a point for taking the game into OT and the standings don't rally change much, despite three consecutive losses. They still lead the Wild Card race, four points ahead of Ottawa for the first berth and six up on contenders Columbus. The most likely playoff situation still has the Bruins facing Tampa Bay in the first round.    

The Bruins better figure out a way to deal with the Lightning - they're 0-2-1 against Tampa Bay this season, and will be facing them Saturday afternoon (12:30 pm) in the Garden.