Bruins Fall to Wild as Defensive Struggles Continue at Home

The Boston Bruins (13-6-1) fell for the second consecutive time at TD Garden, as the Minnesota Wild (15-3-4) picked up the 6-2 win on Saturday night.

Just under seven minutes into the game, Minnesota struck first as Ryan Hartman slotted home his second goal of the season. Blake Coleman outmuscled Connor Clifton behind Jeremy Swayman’s net winning the puck battle and finding Hartman on his right. Hartman had plenty of time to pick his spot and fired the puck above Swayman’s glove-side shoulder, right inside the far post.

Less than a minute into the second period the Wild doubled their advantage on Quinn Hughes seventh of the season. Kirill Kaprizov raced through the neutral zone and entered the offensive zone before sending a pass to Quinn Hughes near the left side boards. The defenseman skated all the way to the right side of the zone before circling back to the left to create enough separation from Charlie McAvoy to put a shot past a screened Swayman.

It took just one minute and seven seconds for Minnesota to strike once again, as Blake Coleman’s sixth of the season made it 3-0. From behind the cage, Michael McCarron backhanded a pass off the post, with it ricocheting to Bobby Brink. While falling to the ice, the right winger banked a pass to Jonas Brodin along the half-wall. Brodin quickly found Coleman at the point before Coleman fired a onetimer towards the Bruins net. Swayman couldn’t locate the puck through traffic and watched helplessly as it trickled into the net.

Near the midway mark of the contest, Fraser Minten pulled one back for Boston with a power play goal. David Pastrnak started the play as the Bruins swung the puck around the zone, sending it around the endwall for James JJ Peterka, Peterka moved it to the blue line for Frederic Brunet. The defenseman snapped it across the zone to Morgan Geekie at the left side of the blue line before Geekie returned it to Pastrnak near the bottom of the circle. Patrnak found Minten in the low slot, giving Jesper Wallstedt no chance to preserve the shutout.

Only seventy-five seconds later, Ryan Hartman reestablished the Wild’s three-goal advantage with his second goal of the season. After entering the zone on the left side, Kaprizov evaded McAvoy and fired a pass across the ice for Hartman, who slipped behind a pair of Boston defenders near the hashmark before going bar-down to make it 4-1.

Boston’s captain David Patrnak gave the Bruins a glimmer of hope as he cut the deficit to two with his ninth of the season. Pavel Zacha wrapped the puck around the boards for Nikita Zadorov near the half-wall. Zadorov found Pastrnak crashing towards the net at the right face-off dot. Pastrnak managed to sneak the shot between Wallstedt and the near post to make it 4-2.

A minute and a half later, Danila Yurov pushed the lead back to three for Minnesota with under fourteen minutes to play. Yakov Trenin entered the zone on the right side on a three-on-one rush before sending the pass to the far post for Yurov who was waiting all along to tap in the Wild’s fifth goal.

Yurov would strike again with an empty net goal coming with less than five minutes remaining to give Minnesota a four goal cushion. Yurov put home a wrister after being set up by Coleman’s second assist of the game.

Jeremy Swayman stopped 19 of the 24 shots he stopped in the defeat, with the sixth goal coming while he was pulled for an extra attacker. Jesper Wallstedt denied 30 of Boston's 32 shots as he picked up the road victory.

Boston returns to the ice Tuesday night against the Los Angeles Kings. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m. on NESN.

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