Trailing the Carolina Hurricanes 2-1 entering the third period Friday afternoon, head coach Jim Montgomery reminded his team what was at stake.
With a win, the Bruins would set the NHL’s record for most consecutive home wins to start a season at 12.
Whatever it was that Montgomery had said worked. David Krejci’s second goal of the game tied it in the third, David Pastrnak’s overtime rocket won it.
“We talked about it after the second going into the third. There's been a lot of great teams in this league and you're able to set a precedent and break a record,” Montgomery said. “It doesn't happen if those guys don't believe in themselves like they do."
Still recovering from the food coma that Thanksgiving often brings, the sold out TD Garden crowd too knew what was at stake. For a black Friday child-filled crowd, it was as loud as TD Garden has been in quite some time.
The feel was very playoff-like against a Hurricanes team that ended the Bruins season in the playoffs last year.
"I took a moment during one of the timeouts to look around. Obviously, the fans are buzzing, and it's pretty loud. They're our seventh player out there. It's fun to see,” Pastrnak said.
"It's Original Six, so any record you make as a team is special because it's such a long history. We're obviously aware of it, and this group is great.”
For years, the Bruins have consistently been a good home team, obviously this season is no different. But to start the season with 12 consecutive home wins is something special.
Record setting of course.
“It doesn’t happen often, right? We’ve worked extremely hard to get to this game,” captain Patrice Bergeron said. “You don’t want to put all the emphasis on one record, but that being said, we have something special, and we want to carry that on. And it shows character, and that was a character win.”
It was a character win indeed and one that embodies what the Bruins have been able to do all season long.
Getting contributions from all over the lineup, goalie Jeremy Swayman needed to come in relief of Linus Ullmark who left the game with an upper-body injury. Swayman made some big saves coming into the game cold, keeping it a one goal deficit.
"His attitude and he really believes in first team,” said Montgomery. “Everything is about the team. And for him to come in and do the job he did was not a surprise. He did the same thing in Pittsburgh.”
The Hurricanes jumped out to a 2-0 first period lead, before Krejci got the Bruins on the board in the final minute of the second period.
Although the Krejci goal was a key in the Bruins win, it was Charlie McAvoy’s crushing hit on Jesperi Kotkaniemi that gave the Bruins the shot in the arm they needed.
A hit that Montgomery said got the Bruins going.
“I liked the way we started. Then we got on our heels there in the last 10 minutes of the first. We didn't get back until Charlie had that big hit just inside the blue line,” Montgomery said.
The Bruins are back in action Tuesday when they host the Tampa Bay Lightning.
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