Marchand Leads the Way as Bruins Complete Comeback vs. Canucks

BOSTON - Brad Marchand's motor is always at full throttle.
But on Sunday night, there was one brief moment when he shut it all down.
With the Bruins trailing by a goal midway through the third period, David Pastrnak launched a rocket of a one-timer on the power play that appeared at first to beat Vancouver Canucks goalie Jaroslav Halak.

Marchand stopped, tucked his stick away, and began to approach Pastrnak to celebrate what he thought was the tying tally. But that momentary pause was an aberration.
As play continued, the winger quickly realized that the puck had rung off the post, leading him to charge toward the crease. Through a pile of chaos, Marchand collected the loose puck and ripped a wrister by Halak to tie the game.
"I thought Pasta scored so I kind of stopped playing for a second," said Marchand. "And then I saw [Nick Foligno] whacking away at it and [Patrice Bergeron] same thing, so just tried to get close to it. It was a very fortunate bounce to come out. Nice to put that one away."
And he didn't stop there.
Marchand continued his torrid takeover later in the third period with a ridiculous dangle around Vancouver defenseman Kyle Burroughs in the corner before dishing across the crease to Pastrnak, who tapped home the feed for the winning power-play tally in Boston's 3-2 comeback victory over the Canucks at TD Garden.
"I knew Pasta was gonna be around there. We've scored a few goals over the years with that play," said Marchand. "He's so good at finding that hole and Foligno did a great job at tying up the D's stick in front and giving me a lane. That was a great job by Pasta - the guy was all over him, but he was strong on his stick and did a great job putting it in."

But it wasn't just Marchand's offensive powers that helped pull the Bruins out of a hole on Sunday night. The 5-foot-9, 181-pounder also set the tone physically, doling out a game-high five hits, including a crushing check on Canucks defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson during a forecheck behind the Vancouver net in the second period.
"Real good job on his part with the physicality in the second period," said Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy. "I thought we started well, you're playing OK, and then the penalties got us into trouble. The second period started to get away from us in terms of dictating play, and then March went out and had a couple solid hits, and now, all of a sudden, [Trent Frederic] is finishing a check, and it snowballs a bit, other guys are doing it.
"He can help you win in a lot of ways. We saw it offensively, and we've been seeing it on the power play, penalty kill here for years. So, the physical part was good…he's our best player, plays, I think, the most minutes of any forward on our team. You hope it rubs off on other guys. That's what you hope at the end of the day."
Marchand could sense that the Bruins needed a boost during the second period as they fell into a 2-1 hole on Connor Garland's tally just past the midway point of the frame, and despite his physical limitations, felt that he could send a message to his teammates that the game was still there for the taking.
"It's something that's been in our organization. It's a staple of the Bruins culture…to play hard all the way through," said Marchand. "The game, just in general, is getting away from that. But the good teams still play hard and finish your checks and make it hard on opposing teams and we're no different.
"That's every guy regardless of their size can finish a check. Sometimes they present themselves more than other nights and tonight was one of those nights."
With Marchand leading the way, the Bruins found their way in the third period, outshooting Vancouver, 18-11, while potting the two power-play markers to secure what has become a rare comeback victory.
"We definitely didn't play the way that we can in the second period," said Marchand. "We haven't been able to string together too many real good 60-minute efforts, but I think we're going to be happy with the way that we were resilient in the third period and that's something that's been a strong suit for our team for a long time. We did a great job getting back to that and not folding and being resilient. It was a big win."

Coming Up (While) Short

Marchand would not have been in position to tie the game if not for the work of Linus Ullmark, who turned away a shorthanded breakaway chance from Vancouver's Tyler Motte just seconds before to keep the deficit at 2-1.
"The shorthanded breakaway goal, it could've been a back breaker," said Cassidy. "When you judge goaltenders, it's timely saves, and that was huge. That was a huge save. If he doesn't make that save, I don't know if we win the game. Anything could have happened, but that was big."
Ullmark was back between the pipes for the first time since Nov. 20 in Philadelphia after ceding the net to Jeremy Swayman for the past two games while he dealt with an injury that he tweaked during morning skate in Buffalo last Wednesday.
"It's always nice. It turned out to be a pretty big moment in the game because we scored right after, so I'll definitely say it's a confidence booster," Ullmark, who made 36 saves, said of the stopping the shorthanded chance.
Cassidy noted that it's possible he'll turn back to Ullmark on Tuesday night against the Detroit Red Wings as he aims to get the netminder into more of a groove.
"We've got to get him in a rhythm," said Cassidy. "Some of that will be how he's feeling after this. He missed some time with an injury. He went down early in the game on a rimmed puck - I thought he might have re-injured but look like he might have just it a rut. So, we'll see in the morning…we've got [games] Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, so certainly an opportunity to get him work."

In the Middle of It

Trent Frederic was back in the lineup after missing seven games with a concussion and returned to his natural center position between Nick Foligno and Karson Kuhlman. The 23-year-old landed three hits and three shots on goal in 11:50 of ice time.
"He had some good opportunities between the rings, so I like that," said Cassidy. "He was around the puck, skating better in the middle - obviously a little more freedom to move around. You're not enclosed as much as you are on the walls. Obviously, faceoffs will be a challenge, and we knew that. Nick could take some, go in for him, so we let him kind of sort out his way. That's something that we will have to monitor when you don't play center for a while.
"But I liked his game in there. I thought he was fine and did a good job. Down the stretch, we used [Tomas Nosek], once we had the lead, a little bit more than him, but I'd like to see him grow into that role where we trust him as much as everyone else. That will be a work in progress for him as a center iceman with D-zone coverage responsibility, but hopefully he can handle that as we go."
Cassidy felt that Frederic and Foligno made for a good duo, noting that their physicality complemented each other well. Boston's bench boss also had high praise for Foligno's net-front work on the power play.
"I thought Foligno was around the front of the net, did a great job on the power-play goals, both of them," said Cassidy. "He's right there on top of the crease. If he's not there creating havoc, I don't think we score. I thought he was good on pucks. I thought he played well with Freddy. They have some similar attributes in terms of their size and how they are going to play in straight lines.
"I thought Kuhlman was skating well. Every time we put him in, he seems to have a good motor, had a couple of looks down the wing, so he complemented them well. So, I liked the third line. I thought they played solid for us."

A High and Low

Anton Blidh notched the B's first goal of the night at 5:51 of the opening period to tie the game, 1-1. The winger made a nifty move through the neutral zone before shooting across his body from high in the Vancouver zone to beat Halak glove side.
Blidh later left the game in the third period after taking a nasty hit from behind from Ekman-Larsson that resulted in the winning power-play goal from Pastrnak.
"Upper body, no concussion or anything like that," said Cassidy. "But he hurt his upper body around [the shoulder] area. We'll reevaluate [on Monday]. He's sore right now and he may miss time, he may not."