3 Takeaways From Bruins’ 3-2 Loss to Wild

For the second time in four days, the Boston Bruins met the Minnesota Wild, this time on the road at the Xcel Energy Center in Minnesota. On Dec. 19, the Wild scored two third-period goals to take a lead before the Bruins tied it late on the power play to force overtime, where Minnesota won it 4-3.

Boston was entering the game coming off their most disappointing loss of the season Friday night (Dec. 22), 5-1, to the Winnipeg Jets, and the big question going into the game was how would they respond to that outing. For the first 20 minutes, the response was good from the Bruins, but over the final 40 minutes, it looked like the team against the Jets. The Wild scored three goals over the final two periods for a 3-2 win, the fourth consecutive loss for Boston. Here are three takeaways after the Black and Gold fell to 19-7-6 on the season at the three-day Christmas break.

Bruins Play Strong First Period

Second-year head coach Jim Montgomery was looking for a response after the Winnipeg game and he got it. Boston opened the scoring just 2:37 into the game when David Pastrnak scored on a power play. Following the goal, the Bruins played the game with pace, they were controlling the puck in all three zones and even got another power play shortly after the goal, but did not cash in.

Their structure was good and even more important, their attention to detail was good, something that was lacking for 60 minutes against Winnipeg. They only had five shots, but they won a lot of board battles, created pressure on the Wild, defended well in their zone and controlled possession. However, it was all for nothing as the final 40 minutes was a repeat of the full 60 in Winnipeg.

Wild Took Over the Game in the Second & Third Periods

The good feeling the Bruins had after the opening period was dashed quickly by the Wild in the second and third periods. Minnesota outshot the Black and Gold, 19-6, in the middle period and it certainly felt like it was worse than that. Minnesota tied the game on a Joel Eriksson-Ek power-play goal, then just 1:21 later a defensive zone breakdown off a faceoff by Boston led to another goal. They lost track of Kirill Kaprizov and left him alone in the slot and he was able to one-time a pass from the circle for a 2-1 lead.