After missing the last five games with an upper-body injury, Torey Krug made sure his return to the Bruins lineup Saturday night was a memorable one. But the Bruins defenseman needed some help before he could play the role of overtime hero.
For 58 minutes, it didn’t look like Saturday would be the Bruins night. The bounces were literally going Minnesota’s way, the Bruins couldn’t stay out of the penalty box and Wild goalie Alex Stalock was standing on his head.
But thanks to two goals from David Krejci in the final two minutes of the third period—both with goalie Tuukka Rask pulled—the Bruins were able to tie the game at four, forcing overtime.
“Well bounces didn’t go our way for sure, but we stuck with it. We talked about it before the third period, just play the way we’re supposed to play and the bounces will go our way. We’re a good enough team, but we got to play the way, how we can play,” said Krejci
“You saw it on my first goal there, couple of bounces, couple of battles there by our guys and that’s what you need.”
After Krejci played the role of third period hero, and in search of their first overtime win of the season, Krug used the momentum earned in the third period to become overtime hero.
Going end-to-end and using the—very—open space given to him, Krug was able to squeeze one past Stalock, closing the book on a memorable comeback.
“I get a lot of breakaways, so instinct kicked in,” Krug joked.
“I wanted to come up slower, see what my options were. Came up the left side a little bit to mess with Parise’s gap. Once I took a couple of hard strides I realized I could beat him, parting of the sea and [Brad Marchand] Marchy and [Patrice Bergeron] Bergy drew some attention as well and all of a sudden I was in all alone.”
As much as Krejci’s third period goals allowed Krug to work his overtime magic, a big save by Tuukka Rask in overtime kept the Bruins alive.
After Rask’s save, the Bruins won the ensuing faceoff and seconds later Krug was off to the races and depositing the puck into the net for the game winner.
“I think with the group we have we always realize there is another play to be made. It doesn’t matter what has happened previously in the game,” Krug added. “Tuukka made a hell of a save to keep us in the game to allow us to have a chance to tie it.”
As expected from a guy who has missed some time, it took a bit for Krug to shake the rust off and get back into the flow of things. As a guy who doesn’t kill penalties, the 16 minutes of penalty minutes by the Bruins didn’t help Krug get his game legs going.
“When you’re spending so much time killing penalties, it takes away from the rhythm of the game, guys aren’t getting regular shifts, Butchie [head coach Bruce Cassidy] has to find ways to get guys engaged, get them moving,” said Krug.
“We thought we actually had a decent second period but the penalties kind of killed us and killed our momentum. But we were able to come out in the third and stick with it.”
To add insult to injury, Krug was caught on an odd-man rush in the third period. Looking to break up a pass in front of the Bruins goal, Krug knocked the puck into his own goal.
So I guess you can say Krug had himself a two-goal game in his return.
“Those things happen through the course of the season and in games. Try and make a good defensive play and it ends up in the back of your net,” said Krug. “Guys were giving me a bit of a hard time, had a couple of goals tonight.”
Krug and the Bruins will take Krug having a couple of goals on any night, they just hope that next time both of those go into the correct net.
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