Bruins suffer crushing loss to Vegas, 4-3

The Bruins keep finding new torturous ways to lose hockey games.

The Bs coughed up a pair of two-goal leads and then gave up a power-play goal with 1:10 left in regulation to lose to the Vegas Golden Knights, 4-3, at the Garden.

Pavel Zacha was called for slashing with 3:10 left in regulation and, when the Bs failed to clear on several chances, Pavel Dorofeyev pounced on a loose puck and lifted it over a sprawling Jeremy Swayman with 1:41 left in regulation.

But Mark Stone was in the crease and made contact with Swayman and the Bs challenged for interference.

It was a good challenge and the goal came off the board.

But the Bs could not make good on it.

As Zachas penalty was up, Tomas Hertl scored from the slot to make it 4-3.

Thats how it ended.

So on a day that started so well ended with the Bs getting nothing in the standings.

The Bruins took a 2-1 lead into the first break after an eventful opening 20 minutes.

Brad Marchand notched his 20th goal of the season at 3:17 and it was one of the easiest ones hes scored in his career.

Nikita Zadorov spotted an undefended Marchand at the side the net and he hit the captain with a perfect pass for the tap-in.

The tally marked the 14th time in his career that Marchand reached the 20-goal plateau.

The Bs had several excellent scoring chances.

Morgan Geekie had a glittering chance on a 2-on-1 when David Pastrnak delivered a beautiful pass.

With a ton of room upstairs, Geekie was robbed by Ilya Samsonov with a sprawling glove save.

The Bs did take a 2-0 lead at 13:49.

The Marchand line stormed the Vegas net and Samsonov made at least one excellent save in tight.

But with the netminder down on the ice, the puck squirted out to Zadorov, who blasted a slapper over Samsonov for his third of the season.

Things got physical in a pileup in front of the benches and Oliver Wahlstrom squared up with Keegan Kolesar,, who scored the takedown.

Penalty trouble slowed the Bs momentum and prevented them from taking a two-goal lead into intermission.

John Beecher tripped Alex Pietrangelo from behind in the offensive zone and the Knights fourth-ranked power play cashed in, with a little help from the Bs.

After winning the puck, Zadorov had plenty of time to clear it down the rink but he tried to make a pass up the middle that was picked off by Vegas.

Eventually Mark Stone deflected home Shea Theodores shot at 15:09 to make it 2-1.

Brandon Carlo was also nabbed for a questionable roughing penalty later in the period but the Bs were much more deliberate in killing that one off.

The game was not trending well for the Bs in the second period.

Vegas (16-6 shot advantage in the second) was establishing dominance in the Bs end and needed Swayman to come up with a couple of big saves.

The first one came at 11:45 when Pavel Dorofeyev was all alone at the bottom of the right circle but Swayman snared the 22-goal goal scorers hard wrister.

Then after Hertl deked through Charlie McAvoy, Swayman came up with a big stop on Hertls backhander.

But then the Bs, whod spent precious little time in the Vegas end, regained their two-goal lead at 15:07 off a flub from Samsonov.

The netminder came out to play the puck behind the net but he whiffed on his shovel attempt.

Pastrnak pounced and fed Geekie out from for his 17th of the year.

As has so often happened with the Bs this year, however, they couldnt close out the period.

Just 34 seconds left in the period, Swayman could not handle Zac Whiteclouds nothing shot from the point and it leaked over the line before Andrew Peekes attempt to yank it off the line was not successful.

It was a crushing goal.

Then at 4:56, the inevitable Vegas equalizer happened.

Off the rush, both Wahlstrom and McAvoy went to Jack Eichel, leaving a lot of open ice.

After taking the Eichel feed, Theodore made a terrific feed to a wide-open Dorofeyev at the bottom of the right circle and he didnt miss this time.

The Bs appeared to get the go-ahead goal oh so briefly at 10:17 when Zadorovs point shot got by Samsonov, but it was immediately waved off for contact with the goalie by Marchand..

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