Riley Nash notched his first two-goal game as a Bruin, while Anton Khudobin made 18 saves in Boston’s pivotal 2-1 victory over the New York Islanders on Saturday night at the Barclays Center.
The win snapped a four-game losing streak for the Bruins, and broke a tie with the Islanders for the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference playoff race. The Islanders do have one game in hand, and the teams will see each other again during the final week of the regular season.
Khudobin improved to 5-0-0 in his last five starts, all under interim coach Bruce Cassidy, with the impressive win in relief of starter Tuukka Rask, who was unable to play with an injury.
John Tavares gave the Islanders their own lead of the evening midway through the first period, as the captain weaved his way through Bruins’ defenders before uncorking a wrist shot that beat Khudobin for his 28th goal of the season.
The B’s quickly responded just 36 seconds later, with Nash picking up his first goal of the game to tie the contest at 1-1. Pressure from Dominic Moore created a turnover along the boards near center ice, with Nash picking up the loose puck. He marched into the offensive zone and snapped a wrist shot past Islanders’ goalie Thomas Greiss for his sixth goal of the season and second in two games.
After a scoreless second period, the Bruins took the lead for good thanks to the combination of Moore and Nash at 4:12 of the final period. Moore took the puck into the zone, with Noel Acciari breaking towards the middle. Moore cut back and found Nash across the zone, and the fourth line forward buried another wrist shot past Greiss for the game-winning goal.
Nash now has three goals and one assist in his last two games, which were the first two-point games of his season with the Bruins.
The Bruins (39-30-6) and Islanders (35-27-12) will each face the Nashville Predators in their next game, with the Isles hosting the Preds on Monday night and the B’s facing them at home on Tuesday night.
If you want MORE coverage of your team, check out Bruins Beat Podcast here on CLNS Radio! The latest episode is below and check us out on ITUNES as well!
