BOSTON — The Bruins will head into the break with the bad taste of missed opportunity in their mouths.
Boston couldn’t hold a two-goal lead against the Vegas Golden Knights and fell 4-3, leaving them with a deeper hole to climb out of when the season resumes.
Just 30 seconds after replay reversed one go-ahead goal for the Knights on the power play late in the third, Thomas Hertl scored one that counted with 70 seconds left to send the TD Garden crowd home disappointed.
The Bruins are off for two weeks as the league breaks for the NHL 4 Nations Face-Off. Brad Marchand (Canada, Elias (Lindholm) and Americans Charlie McAvoy and Jeremy Swayman will participate in the showcase that begins Wednesday in Montreal. The semifinals will be Feb. 17 and 20 at TD Garden.
Boston will next play at home against Anaheim on Feb. 22.
Losing a puck battle proved beneficial to Marchand on the Bruins’ first goal. Noah Hanifin pulled the puck away from him behind Jeremy Swayman. But Hanifin hurried more than he had to and flung the puck up the left wing boards.
Anticipating that Nikita Zadorov would get to the puck first at the point, Marchand circled back and set up shop off the right post, where nobody picked him up.
Zadorov fed him there for an easy layup goal, 3:17 into the game.
After Ilya Samsonov robbed Morgan Geekie on the break with 12:21 left in the first, he couldn’t do anything to stop Zadorov. Amid the chaos in front of the Vegas net, Shea Theodore didn’t get much on his clearing attempt from the slot.
It might as well have been a pass. Zadorov smoked a one-timer through traffic into the goal for a 2-0 Bruins lead.
Theodore atoned for the giveaway later in the period as Mark Stone redirected his shot past Swayman with 4:51 left in the first.
Geekie extended the Bruins’ lead back to two goals and David Pastrnak’s point streak late in the second.
He pounced on Pastrnak’s pass from behind the net and snapped it by Samsonov with 4:53 left to make it 3-1.
Pastrnak will head to the break with a point in 13 straight games.
Swayman had been both busy and sharp for most of the second period, but after he made the initial save on Zach Whitecloud’s shot, the puck trickled through him and over the goal line with 34 seconds left.
Pavel Dorofeyev tied the game on the rush early in the third to make it 3-3.
Samsonov has had some notable struggles against the Bruins during his career, but he robbed Elias Lindholm with 12:14 to keep the game tied.
The Bruins thought they’d pulled ahead when Zadorov’s shot beat Samsonov with 9:43 left. But the referees immediately disallowed it. Replay showed Marchand had bumped Samsonov off his skates.
Swayman finished with 34 saves.
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