Photo: Andrew MacLean
The final horn echoed through the TD Garden on Tuesday night, a somber punctuation mark on a Bruins season that ended not with a playoff berth but with a hard-fought 5-4 overtime loss to the Devils. While the Devils punched their ticket to the postseason, Boston's faithful witnessed a bittersweet finale, highlighted by the NHL debuts of John Farinacci and Frederic Brunet, with Farinacci even etching his name onto the scoresheet with his first big-league goal. The Devils, with their playoff aspirations secured, now turn their attention to a Wednesday night home tilt against the Detroit Red Wings, their last tune-up before the real dance begins.
New Jersey Devils Lineup:
Noesen - Hischier - Bratt
Haula - Mercer - Meier
Palat - Glass - Tatar
Foote - McLaughlin - Bastian
Hughes - Pesce
Dumoulin - Kovacevic
Dillon - Nemec
Allen
Markstrom
Boston Bruins Lineup:
Geekie - Lindholm - Pastrnak
Lauko - Zacha - Lysell
Koepke - Mittelstadt - Lettieri
Khusnutdinov - Minten - Farinacci
Zadorov - Jokiharju
Lohrei - Peeke
Brunet - Wotherspoon
Swayman
Korpisalo
Timo Meier put New Jersey in the lead 1-0 with his 26th goal of the season from the right circle when his quick shot beat Jeremy Swayman to the far post after Meier received a pass from Luke Hughes down in the Devils' zone before he entered the neutral zone, passing it off to Brett Pesce, who took it up the right side and sent it back over to Meier at 12:35 of the opening frame. Not long after the Devils' tally, Morgan Geekie tied it up 1-1 at 11:17 when David Pastrnak made a cross-ice pass to him after Pastrnak had gained possession of the puck off a pass from Nikita Zadorov. Geekie had been waiting at the top of the left circle for a one-timer, beating Jake Allen to the short side for his 33rd of the season.
Only 29 seconds into the second period, Boston took a 2-1 lead on Pastrnak's 43rd goal of the season when he split two defensemen and scored on a backhand after a give-and-go with Elias Lindholm, who was skating in his 900th NHL game. Stefan Noesen knotted it back up with 15:53 on the clock on a power-play goal after Swayman wasn't able to cover the puck, and Noesen shoveled it in from the crease. Simon Nemec picked up his second goal of the season, untying the knot to give the Devils a 3-2 lead just 30 seconds later, right off the face-off, when he got the puck from Marc McLaughlin. Nemec fired a wrister from the high slot, which appeared that it was going to sail over the net when Swayman attempted to play it with his blocker, and it ricocheted into the net. With 6:23 on the clock, Dawson Mercer increased the lead to 4-2 on the power play on his 18th goal of the season, but John Farinacci responded, cutting it to 4-3 soon after when he scored on a rebound from the right circle for his first NHL goal.
Marat Khusnutdinov tied it back up 4-4 at 14:52 of the third for his fifth goal of the season when he was fed by Fabian Lysell, who won a foot race to the loose puck in the offensive zone with Brendan Dillon, and Khusnutdinov sent a one-timer behind Allen from the slot.
Brian Dumoulin called game with 3:30 remaining in overtime for his third of the season and his first goal as a Devil off a drop pass by Mercer, drove up and put it home on a wrist shot from the inside edge of the left face-off circle for the 5-4 final.
Notes:
- Nico Hischier and Luke Hughes each picked up a pair of assists. ...Timo Meier recorded one goal and two assists, and Dawson Mercer recorded one goal and one assist.
- Jake Allen made a total of 20 saves for New Jersey, and Jeremy Swayman made a total of 21 saves for Boston.
- The Devils will face the Carolina Hurricanes, the No. 2 seed, in the Eastern Conference First Round.
- The Bruins failed to qualify for playoffs for the first time since the 2015-16 season.
- Nikita Zadorov recorded a pair of assists, and David Pastrnak had a two-point night, recording both a goal and an assist. ...With his ninth career 10-game point streak, Pastrnak ranks second in franchise history behind Phil Esposito (10). He has 22 points (nine goals, 13 assists) during the streak. He's also the first Boston skater with a six-game multipoint streak since the 1992-93 season (Ray Bourque and Joe Juneau). ...Pastrnak has also played all 82 games for the third consecutive season.
- After being acquired in a trade on March 6th with the Anaheim Ducks, Brian Dumoulin scored his first goal with the Devils in 18 games.
- In his Devils debut, Marc McLaughlin assisted on Simon Nemec's goal. He had been acquired in a trade with the Bruins on the seventh of March, played his previous 26 NHL games with Boston.
- Morgan Geekie extended his NHL career-high goal streak to a total of six games, which is the longest by a Bruins player since Brad Marchand (seven games, Feb. 2-13, 2016).
- In his NHL debut, Frederic Brunet had two shots on goal in 14:23 of ice time.
- NJ: 42-32-7, BOS: 33-39-10
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