LAS VEGAS –– The Boston Bruins refused to go down easy.
Despite trailing the Vegas Golden Knights 6-3 at the beginning of the third period on Thursday at T-Mobile Arena, the B’s got depth contributions to pull within one before the final buzzer.
Mark Kastelic and Mikey Eyssimont’s goals in the final frame highlighted the strong play from the Bruins’ bottom six for the majority of the 6-5 loss. Boston got a cumulative six points from the latter half of its forward group, featuring two-point nights from Eyssimont and Sean Kuraly.
“They did their job,” head coach Marco Sturm said of the fourth line. “They played in their end the whole time because they went behind them, and they worked. That’s what we talked about before the game.”
The Bruins got on the board early with a goal from Tanner Jeannot. The forward was stationed in front of the net and hopped on the rebound of Charlie McAvoy’s shot from the right circle, knocking it past Akira Schmid for the 1-0 lead at 2:05. It marked Jeannot’s second goal of the season.
The Golden Knights were quick to respond; Pavel Dorofeyev scored just over a minute later to tie things 1-1.
Nikita Zadorov regained the Bruins’ advantage with a blast from the point while Jeffrey Viel and Kastelic took Schmid’s eyes away in the crease. The defenseman picked up his first goal of the year on the play and put Boston ahead 2-1 at 16:44.
Viel skated in his first game of the season on Thursday. The 28-year-old forward slotted in on the fourth line with Kuraly and Kastelic, and had one block and four hits through 11:50 of ice time.
“The fourth line was the best line, and he was a big part of it,” Sturm said of Viel.
Cole Reinhardt found the equalizer with a wrist shot at 18:33, sending the game to the second period knotted at 2-2. Jack Eichel extended Vegas’ lead to 3-2 at 4:14 of the middle frame before a power-play goal at 6:35 from Tomas Hertl made it 4-2.
