The Boston Bruins lost to the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday night in the opening matchup of their three-game West Coast road trip. The Bruins fell 3-2 in the game after Joonas Donskoi scored a power-play goal for the game-winning score in the third period.
The Bruins remained winless against California teams this season with the loss, but there were some positives to take away from the game. The Bruins had been dominated in their previous game against the Sharks, allowing five goals back in November. This time around things were much tighter, with Boston getting goals from David Krejci and Loui Eriksson, while goalie Tuukka Rask had 24 saves.
"We didn't play bad, we probably deserved to win as much as they did," Rask said. "We couldn't get the result we wanted."
The Bruins now are one point back of the Florida Panthers in the Atlantic Division standings after the loss. The team has a one-point lead over the Tampa Bay Lightning. Boston has been playing very well through the last two weeks, as this was the first game the team lost in regulation since the trade deadline at the end of February. The team now will play against the Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings to complete the California road trip.
"It was a competitive game," coach Claude Julien said. "You don't like to lose, so that's probably a bit of a bitter feeling right now. But the effort was there . . .We come up on the losing side, but nonetheless sometimes you look at your team's effort and how hard they played and can't be necessarily disappointed with that."
Boston did not give up on the game, even after Donskoi scored to give the Sharks a 3-2 lead. With just more than four minutes left in the game, Krejci had a chance to score on Sharks' goalie James Reimer, but he could not put the puck in the net. Krejci had a goal and an assist in the game, including a nifty setup for Eriksson's shorthanded goal that gave the team a 2-1 lead. But the rest of the way it was all San Jose.
Brent Burns had a strong game for the Sharks, putting up two points and scoring the game-tying goal before Donskoi's winner. The goal was his 26th of the season. Burns has been putting up great numbers this season, and he is now tied for the franchise record for points by a defenseman in a season for the Sharks. Burns is trying to become the first defenseman since Washington's Mike Green to score 30 goals in a season.
"I'm not going to lie, it's a pretty cool honor," Burns said. "I just think it means I'm playing with a lot of great players. You're the recipient of a lot of great plays by guys."
