BOSTON – We found out on Thursday night what Charlie McAvoy was going to do to celebrate his 20th birthday.
The rookie defenseman snapped a shot through Connor Hellebuyck as the fourth Bruins shooter in the shootout to give the Bruins a 2-1 shootout win over the Winnipeg Jets at TD Garden. The B's have now won 12 of their last 16 games and move to within two points of the Toronto Maple Leafs for second place in the Atlantic Division.
The Bruins and Winnipeg Jets played to a scoreless tie through two periods that featured very strong goaltending, up-and-down action and not a lot of extended possession time at either end of the ice.
In the third period the Bruins finally broke through when Torey Krug snapped a wrist shot through traffic including a Noel Acciari flash screen, and the puck managed to whisk into the net past Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck. It was Krug’s sixth goal of the season and opened the veritable floodgates as Winnipeg stormed right back with a goal of their own.
Sean Kuraly was controlling the puck behind the Boston net, but fell down and coughed it up below the goal line. Torey Krug couldn’t control the loose puck, and it ended up on the stick of Patrick Laine for a sweeping wrist shot that Tuukka Rask couldn’t stop.
The rest of the third period and overtime was scoreless for both sides, and Rask ended up with 37 saves before helping to push the game into the shootout session where both David Pastrnak and McAvoy scored for the B’s.