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  • Tuukka Rask, Bruins overcome early deficit

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    Tuukka Rask, Bruins overcome early deficit

    Tim Rosenthal October 18, 2016
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    Tuukka Rask was in a zone on Monday night.

    In a game where the Bruins had to overcome another early 1-0 deficit, a tough break on a Zdeno Chara goal taken away due to being offsides and some sloppy play, Rask stood tall in his second start of the season, making 34 stops in Boston’s 4-1 victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Monday night.

    Rask’s best saves of the night came in the first period when he robbed Mathieu Perrault on a point blank shot and followed up by robbing Adam Lowry on the doorstep. Through two periods and five shorthanded attempts, Rask made 26 stops, including 13 on the penalty kill.

    “The one that stands out for me is the double save that Tuukka did at the end of the first that keeps this game 1-1,” head coach Claude Julien said about Rask during his postgame press conference with the media. “I really think that might have been the turning point there. He gave us some life. He gave us a lot of confidence. From there, we took off.”

    Rask’s only goal allowed came when Blake Wheeler stormed out of the penalty box for a breakaway and finished a nifty goal 10 minutes into the first. Nineteen seconds later, Dominic Moore tied the game at 1-1 with his first as a member of the Black and Gold.

    The 2014 Vezina Winner also added a pair of assists in the victory.

    “I saw the puck well today. I thought I was in a good position to make some saves,” Rask told reporters following the Bruins third and final game of their season-opening road trip. “That one double save there, that was tough to control the first shot, but it ended up hitting me with the rebound and it’s one of those [situations] where sometimes you save them and sometimes you don’t. But fortunately we escaped that first [period] with a tie and kind of regrouped after that.”

    “Best player on the ice,” added David Pastrnak, who scored the game-winner late in the second period for his team-leading fourth goal of the year in his 100th career NHL game. “When the score was 1-1, they got great chances. He kept us alive.”

    Luckily for Rask, Pastrnak’s game-winner helped settle things down after two periods.

    Unlike the first two periods where the Bruins had to overcome a tough break on a Zdeno Chara goal that was disallowed after video review deemed David Krejci was offsides and spending most of their time in the defensive end, Rask and company smoothed things out in the final 20 minutes. Passes were crisp, their transition game was seamless and their play in all three zones was fluid.

    Eventually, the Bruins were rewarded in the third with a pair of late goals from Brandon Carlo — the first of his career — and Chara’s empty netter.

    “Third [period] was our best one today,” Rask added. “The way we protected the ice in the neutral zone and in our own end we blocked a lot of shots, so that was a great sign. Winning teams always know how to play with the lead, and today definitely looked like we did, and we extended the lead with some nice goals. So a great sign with that third.”

    A game removed from sitting on the bench due to soreness in Toronto, Rask quieted some doubters again for another night.

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    Tim Rosenthal

    Tim Rosenthal serves as the Managing Editor of Bruins Daily. He started contributing videos to the site in 2010 before fully coming on board during the Bruins' Stanley Cup run in 2011. His bylines over the last decade have been featured on Boston.com, FoxSports.com, College Hockey News, Patch and Inside Hockey. You can follow Tim on Twitter @_TimRosenthal.

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