If the Boston Bruins are going to have even a remote chance to do anything during the Stanley Cup playoffs, they were going to need to get Morgan Geekie back online offensively.
That finally happened on Tuesday night as Geekie exploded for a hat trick while snapping a 17-game goalless streak, and the Bruins salvaged a point in a 6-5 overtime loss to the Carolina Hurricanes at the Lenovo Center.
“The whole bench was happy when he scored,” said Marco Sturm. “We need him.”
It was a solid comeback as the B’s fell apart defensively in the second period to the point that Sturm pulled Jeremy Swayman from the game, but stormed back in the third, led by Geekie, Pavel Zacha, and some strong relief goalie work from Joonas Korpisalo.
“We just lost control in that second period,” said Sturm. “We just did a lot of bad things out there. This is playoff hockey and you just can’t do those things like that. I don’t we understood that.
“But in the third period we wanted to play a certain way that would at least give us a chance. Guys responded really well in the third [period].”
The goal-scoring outburst, not so surprisingly, coincided with Geekie moving back over to the left wing, and being paired back up with B’s game-breaking winger David Pastrnak.
It was Pastrnak that collected primary assists on Geekie’s first two goals around the net front prior to Geekie tipping home a Nikita Zadorov blast in the third period to cap off the second hat trick of his career.
The three-goal performances provide a lot of credible evidence that the Bruins should leave Geekie and Pastrnak together for a prospective postseason, even if Sturm has liked No. 88 skating with rookie Fraser Minten and Russian energizer bunny Marat Khusnutdinov for long stretches of this season.
The scoring binge was obviously good news for the scuffling Geekie, and the overall five-goal barrage was a welcome bit of offense for a team that struggled to score at all on the four-game road trip.
“It’s awesome. He’s a heck of a shooter and player for us,” said Pastrnak of Geekie reclaiming his scoring touch. “It’s good he got the goals…happy for him.”
The struggles for Geekie seemed to reach a boiling point in Philly when he smashed a stick into the glass in Philly after a golden scoring chance from the slot was blocked by a Flyers defender. But the release that comes with the goal eases the pressure a bit ahead of a potential postseason run for Boston and could portend a
