Bruins tie it up late in regulation, pull out OT win over Blackhawks, 5-4

Steve Conroy, Boston Herald on Oct 31, 2026

Published in Hockey

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BOSTON — Hard work and execution were not strong suits for the Bruins on Saturday at TD Garden, but a little late resilience got them two improbable points.

The Bruins erased a two-goal third period deficit and Elias Lindholm scored the overtime game-winner to lift Boston over the Chicago Blackhawks, 5-4. Lindholm caught a long pass from Charlie McAvoy at the Chicago blueline and somehow held off Oliver Moore to tuck it under goalie Arvid Soderblom.

The Bruins were outplayed much of the day, but they managed to escape with the victory.

The Blackhawks took their third one-goal lead at 9:38 of the third period during at the end of a 4-on-4. Charlie McAvoy had been pressing the matter deep in the offensive zone and got a couple of good chances. But eventually the puck went the other way and it spelled disaster. With only Mason Lohrei back, Ryan Greene broke in on a 3-on-1 and kept it for himself, beating Michael DiPietro shortside.

This time, they extended it. James Hagens could not control a bouncing puck at the Boston blue line and Connor Bedard sneaked in behind him for a clean breakaway. He beat DiPietro with a slick backhander at 12:20.

The Bruins got one back at 13:06. JJ Peterka made a nice move behind the Chicago net to come free and fed Lohrei for a shortside goal.

And with 10.2 seconds left and DiPietro pulled, the Bruins got a goal from a much-needed source. Throwing everything at the Hawks, McAvoy fed the previously ice-cold Morgan Geekie, who ripped his patented one-timer from the left circle. It was just his second goal of the year.

The Bruins were coming off one of their worst performances of the year in a 4-1 loss in St. Louis. Home ice did not immediately snap them out of it

The Blackhawks took it to the Bruins in the first period, outshooting them 14-7, but the Bruins managed to get into the first intermission tied at 1-1.

The Hawks grabbed the lead on the power play. As was the case twice in St. Louis, the Bruins took a penalty — in this case a Will Borgen delay of game call — and almost immediately coughed up the goal. Off the first faceoff, Patrick Kane made a nice diagonal pass to Anton Frondell in the left dot and the young Swede ripped a one-timer to beat DiPietro at 6:04.

Chicago continued to pressure the B’s in the Boston end, but it was off that pressure that the B’s were able to tie up. From his own zone, Pavel Zacha backhanded the puck up for an awaiting David Pastrnak, who had a clean breakaway. Pastrnak picked his spot over Arvid Soderbloom’s glove for his eighth goal of the year at 13:05. The goal was the captain’s 428th career goal, moving him one ahead of Patrice Bergeron for third place on the Bruins' all-time goalscoring list, trailing one organization icons Johnny Bucyk (545) and Phil Esposito (459).

But the Hawks regained the lead at 3:31 of the second period on a fortunate bounce. After Mark Kastelic hit the post at one end — the second of three posts the Bruins hit in the opening 23 minutes (Geekie and Marat Khusnutdinov had the others) — Tyler Bertuzzi threw what looked like a harmless shot toward the net from outside the left circle. But it deflected off Frondell’s shin pad and beat DiPietro shortside. As the old saying goes, you work for your luck and the Blackhawks were doing just that.

The Hawks very nearly took a two-goal lead when Lohrei lost the puck behind his net to Oliver Moore, who fed it out front to Kane. But DiPietro made a terrific glove save on the future Hall of Famer.

But as poorly as the Bruins were playing, the managed to scratch back and tie it again. Casey Mittelstadt and James Hagens combined to take the puck away from Connor Bedard in the neutral zone and Hagens carried the puck into the zone on the right side. He passed it back to Mittelstadt coming down the middle and Mittelstadt ripped a wrist shot through Soderbloom at 12:34 for his fifth.

Things got testy late in the period when 6-foot-6, 225-pound Alex Vlasic did not like how Mittelstadt finished his check. He first knocked the Bruins down from behind and then went after him at center ice. Nikita Zadorov wasn’t going to let that stand and raced in to rescue his teammate. The upshot was that both Zadorov and Vlasic received double minors for roughing and Zadorov was tagged with an extra 10-minute misconduct.

The Bruins were being outshot, 28-13, but even at 2-2 going into the third period.