Boston’s Patrice Bergeron skates off the ice after the Bruins lost to the Arizona Coyotes on Friday on a goal with 13.5 seconds left in regulation. Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press
The Boston Bruins did not feel good about this one.
Lawson Crouse scored with 13.5 seconds left in the third period late Friday night to give Arizona a 4-3 victory, the first for the Coyotes since the start of the 2010-11 season.
The Bruins fumbled the puck when an icing call was waived off at the last instant. As goalie Jeremy Swayman raised his hand to indicate to his defenseman Derek Forbort that an icing was coming, the puck went through the edge of the crease before going over the end line and hitting the side of the net. At that instant, the linesman waived it off the and puck was live. Forbort then over-skated the puck, Matias Maccelli pounced on it and fed Crouse out front for the winning goal.
The Bruins felt they got jobbed.
“I was shocked,” said Nick Foligno, who had scored a late tying goal. “I actually couldn’t believe it. I was almost dumbfounded at that point. Not to knock those guys, it was just a surprising call. A hundred times out of a hundred, that’s icing.”
Coach Jim Montgomery, whose team held a 46-16 shot advantage, also believed it should have been an icing. There were also a couple of questionable non-calls in the third period.
“Do we think we could have had a couple of more power plays? Yeah, but we could say that every night,” said Montgomery.
The Coyote ended a 19-game losing streak to the Bruins and Boston suffered just its fourth regulation loss of the season. And they can thank goalie Karel Vejmelka (43 saves) for the victory.
It appeared the teams were headed to the 3 on 3 overtime but disaster struck. And though they might have been robbed of at least a point, the Bruins didn’t do what they almost always have done this year — win the third period. The goal still should not have happened. And despite the lopsided shots differential, the chances that Arizona did get were good ones.
“It happens fast,” said Patrice Bergeron. “I think there’s a debate for icing there. But then the linesman is there to make a decision based on a fraction of second. We’ve got to keep playing, bottom line. You can’t point fingers and blame it on decisions. Because that’s the last thing you want to do. As a team, you want to own it and be better next game.”
It didn’t end the way the Bruins wanted, and they now they’ll be challenged to prevent their first losing streak of the year against the Golden Knights in Las Vegas on Sunday.
SABRES: The NHL suspended Buffalo Sabres forward Jeff Skinner for three games on Saturday following an illegal cross-check to the head of Pittsburgh Penguins forward Jake Guentzel.
Skinner and Guentzel had an altercation late in the third period of Pittsburgh’s 4-3 overtime victory on Friday night. The two exchanged slashes before Skinner cross-checked Guentzel twice. The second cross-check was to Guentzel’s face just below his visor.
Guentzel was called for slashing. Skinner earned a minor for misconduct, a 5-minute major and a match penalty.
The league’s Department of Player Safety ruled that Skinner “aggressively and purposefully” struck Guentzel. Skinner will lose forfeit $145,945 in salary for missing three games.
This is the second suspension of Skinner’s 13-year career. He was suspended two games in 2012 while playing for Carolina for kicking St. Louis forward Scott Nichol with the bottom of his skate.
SATURDAY GAMES
STARS 3, RED WINGS 2 (OT): Nils Lundkvist scored with 31 seconds left in overtime and Dallas beat visiting Detroit.
David Perron scored a goal for Detroit in his 1,000th career NHL game. The Stars won late in overtime for the second time in less than 48 hours. They had been been 0-5 in games past regulation before a 4-3 win over Ottawa on Thursday night, when Tyler Seguin scored with 29 seconds left in OT.
SENATORS 3, PREDATORS 2: Drake Batherson scored a goal and assisted on another to lead visiting Ottawa over the Nashville.
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