Morgan Geekie’s 22nd goal of the season and 10th in a nine-game span in the second period proved to be the game-winner in the Boston Bruins’ 4-1 victory over the visiting New Jersey Devils on Saturday night.
Fraser Minten, Casey Mittelstadt and Andrew Peeke also scored while Jeremy Swayman made 29 saves for Boston, which has won back-to-back games for the first time in nearly a month.
Swayman stopped all 18 shots he faced across the final two periods.
Timo Meier scored the lone goal and Jake Allen made 17 saves for the Devils, who had been shut out in their previous two games. It was their fifth consecutive loss.
New Jersey led 30-21 in shots on goal. Both teams were 0-for-1 on the power play.
New Jersey controlled the first period to the tune of a 12-5 shot advantage, making it a 1-1 game just 57 seconds after Boston’s opening goal. Minten gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead at 17:42, taking Mark Kastelic’s pass out of the right corner and slotting it past Allen’s blocker side.
The visitors’ rapid response came from Meier, who was uncovered in front of the net to bang in a loose puck after Nico Hischier deflected a Luke Hughes point shot from outside the crease.
Geekie tipped the score back Boston’s way just 1:12 into the second. Brendan Dillon’s pass was turned over to Elias Lindholm, who fired a spinning shot from the right circle right to Geekie to finish at the bottom of the opposite circle.
Swayman made his best save as the game ticked inside the final five minutes, reaching out his left leg out to deny Connor Brown. With 3:36 left, Mittelstadt finished off a tic-tac-toe sequence with Pavel Zacha and Viktor Arvidsson for an insurance tally.
Peeke’s first goal of the season — a lengthy empty-netter — with 2:17 left clinched the 4-1 score.
Following Geekie’s go-ahead goal, Swayman held steady amidst the Devils’ pressure. Dougie Hamilton’s point shot hit the crossbar halfway through the game, while a power play with 6:13 left resulted from a Nikita Zadorov penalty for crosschecking.
With Boston on its first power play, Alex Steeves had nearly made it a two-goal game when he clanked a one-timer off the right post with 9:24 left in regulation.
–Field Level Media
