Bruins lose to Hurricanes, 3-1

Steve Conroy, Boston Herald on Nov 17, 2025

Published in Hockey

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BOSTON — The Boston Bruins have been a resilient and admirable group for the most part this season. But the depleted B’s learned Monday night that vim and vigor can take you only so far in the National Hockey League.

The Carolina Hurricanes were clearly the better team at TD Garden and used two second period goals to power their way to a 3-1 win.

With half of their top-six forward group missing (Viktor Arvidsson, Elias Lindholm, Casey Mittelstadt) and their top defenseman (Charlie McAvoy) out as well, the B’s were up against it from the get-go. They’d been playing without Lindholm and Mittelstadt for a few games and pretty much survived those absences, but the losses of McAvoy and Arvidsson appeared to be the camel’s backbreaker, at least against a team as good as Carolina.

Given the situation, it was just as well that the scoreless first period was low-event hockey.

Both sides traded unsuccessful power plays and shots were 10-9 in favor of Carolina, which had the better chances in the opening 20 minutes. Jeremy Swayman, outstanding in the win over Montreal on Saturday, appeared to be locked in as well.

The B’s best chance in the first came late in the period when Marat Khusnutdinov found himself in the slot with a clear look at the net but, being overly deferential, passed it to Morgan Geekie, who was not in great position to score at the side of the net.

The Canes started to tilt the ice a bit more early in the second, when they got the best chance of the game to that point when Seth Jarvis was sprung for clean break-in, but Swayman gloved the young star’s five-hole attempt.

Carolina finally took the lead at 8:25 of the second. The B’s had some recurring trouble breaking out of their zone and they got into chase mode on the icebreaker. Hampus Lindholm and Geekie got tangled up out high, allowing Joel Nystrom to put a shot toward the net. The rebound dropped in front of Jordan Staal, who was able to impressively hold off the Bruin defender Andrew Peeke with one hand and shovel it home shortside with the other.

The Canes continued to wear down the B’s and doubled the lead at 13:34. Seconds after David Pastrnak just missed picking off a pass that could have resulted in a breakaway,, Taylor Hall landed a rebound-producing shot on net and Mark Jankowski was there to lift it over Swayman for the 2-0 Carolina advantage.

Coach Marco Sturm tried switching up his lines, moving Pastrnak with Fraser Minten and Tanner Jeannot while Mark Kastelic bumped up to play with Geekie and Khusnutdinov but it couldn’t jumpstart the offense.

The B’s got a late power play but the best scoring chance was to Jarvis, who could not convert a clean breakaway, hitting the post after drawing Swayman out.

Carolina outshot the B’s 13-7 in the second but the shot attempts through two periods were 60-24 in favor of the Canes.

With the Canes in lead-protection mode, the B’s surged a bit in the third but couldn’t find find the back of the net. After the B’s could not convert on a late power play, Taylor Hall extinguished all hope when he kept the puck on a 2-on–1 and was allowed to tuck it home with 2:33 remaining. Riley Tufte, one of the two call-ups added a meaningless power-play goal with 9.6 seconds left to spoil Pyotr Kochetkov’s light-lifting shutout bid.

Now the B’s head out on a tough four-game road trip to Anaheim, Los Angeles, San Jose and Long Island. If they can’t figure out a way to manufacture some scoring when it matters, it’s going to be a long one.

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