The Bruins are 20-7-6 on the season, and both Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark have played a big part in their success thus far. Boston snapped its four-game losing streak Wednesday night with a 4-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center.
The power play went 3-for-3, the penalty kill was 6-for-6 and Swayman made 26 of 27 saves. It was a nice bounce-back win for not only the Bruins, but for Swayman, as well, who surrendered five goals in his last outing against the Winnipeg Jets.
Whether it was the holiday break, or getting stuck in an elevator with Jakub Lauko on Christmas Day, the last few days clearly did Swayman some good. And his effort didn’t go unnoticed by Charlie Coyle.
“Him and Linus Ullmark have been so huge for us all year. We owe a lot to those guys. So we can’t stop playing for them because they’ve they bailed us out of so many games kept us in games won us games,” Coyle, who had two power play goals in the win, told TNT’s Darren Pang after the game. “It’s great to see him get rewarded for playing as well as he does. You love to see it. It builds confidence, and we have all the confidence when we’re playing in front of those guys just because of the way they play every night.”
While Ullmark didn’t get the start, he did make a save while on the Bruins bench.
Going into Wednesday’s game, Swayman ranked third in the NHL with a 2.17 goals-against average, second with a .929 save percentage and tied for third with two shutouts. Ullmark, the reigning Vezina Trophy winner, boasts a 2.87 GAA and .914 save percentage.
The four-game losing streak was a difficult stretch for the Bruins. It was the first time they lost four straight since the August 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs in the Toronto bubble. And while there was plenty of blame to go around, the goaltending was the least of Boston’s worries during that stretch.
Coach Jim Montgomery wanted a more “concerted effort” from his team, and he certainly got that Wednesday night.
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