From the healthy scratch to the first line to … the Bruins’ most reliable big goal scorer?
That’s been true lately for Marat Khusnutdinov.
The 23-year-old forward, who scored the winner in last week’s shootout against Buffalo, scored the tying goal with 4:54 left and the winner in the shootout to push the Bruins to a 4-3 win over the Islanders on Tuesday.
The win extended the Bruins’ winning streak to four games and snapped their road losing streak after four games. Boston is 3-0 when the result is determined after regulation.
The Bruins (8-7-0) are back at home on Thursday when they host the Senators.
After a strong effort earned Joonas Korpisalo two straight starts, Jeremy Swayman’s outstanding game against the Hurricanes had him back in net on Long Island.
He made 25 stops in the win.
Trailing 1-0, Viktor Arvidsson was in the right place for his fourth goal of the season as Casey Mittelstadt’s shot caromed off him into the net to make it 1-1 with 7:19 left in the second.
It didn’t stay tied long as a bad Morgan Geekie giveaway led to an Islanders’ 2-on-1 that Bo Horvat converted to make it 2-1, 45 seconds later.
But Pavel Zacha sent the game to intermission tied when he drilled a rebound by Ilya Sorokin with 2:31 left in the second to make it 2-2.
But the Islanders jumped back ahead early in the third. Horvat scored again, 5:05 in the third to make it 3-2.
Marat Khusnutdinov’s second goal of the season was both pretty and pretty important. He scooped the rebound of a Fraser Minten shot off Sorokin’s pads and then lunged behind a defenseman. As he sprawled to the ice, he hooked a backhand by Sorokin to make it 3-3 with 4:54 left.
Neither team scored in overtime, sending the Bruins to their first shootout of the season.
Simon Holstrom, Mittelstadt and Horvat all came up empty before Khustnutdinov scored the only goal of the shootout. Swayman stopped Jonathan Drouin to seal the win.
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