Bruins takeaways: Pastrnak, Geekie heating up is very encouraging for B's

The Boston Bruins haven't been able to put back-to-back wins together very often this season, and through the first 40 minutes of Tuesday night's game against the Calgary Flames, it looked like the Original Six club would fail to win back-to-back matchups.

The Flames led 2-0 early in the second period and 3-1 entering the third period. But the Bruins battled back, controlling the pace of play, creating lots of scoring chances and ultimately tying the game with goals from Morgan Geekie and Marc McLaughlin to force overtime. And then in OT, David Pastrnak played the role of hero with the game-winning tally.

“I was real proud of our effort in the third period. I thought the guys showed a lot of determination, never-say-die attitude, and good on them,” Bruins head coach Joe Sacco told reporters postgame.

"They worked hard in the third period. We did it the right way. We generated a lot of quality chances. When you play that way, the result and the process usually takes care of itself."

The Bruins have quietly won six of their last eight games and now own a 17-13-3 record in third place in the Atlantic Division. They are 2-2-0 through four games of this five-game road trip, with the finale set for Thursday night against the Edmonton Oilers.

Here are three takeaways from Boston's comeback overtime win over the Flames.

David Pastrnak is heating up offensively

There's an enormous amount of pressure on Pastrnak to be elite offensively on a nightly basis, and it's mostly warranted given his all-world skill set, his salary and previous production. But he's the only top-tier offensive player up front, so the Bruins need him to be a factor consistently, simply because there aren't any other forwards on the roster who strike a ton of fear into the opponent.

After a slow start to the season -- by his standards -- Pastrnak appears to be heating up. His best game of the season came Saturday in Vancouver when he tallied four points (one goal, three assists) in a 5-1 win over the Canucks. And then on Tuesday, Pastrnak scored the winning goal in overtime.

“Just give the puck to 88 or 63, and then pray,” Bruins defenseman Nikita Zadorov told reporters postgame when asked about the feeling on the bench in the OT period. “So that’s the emotion. They are our best players. So put it in their hands, and they’re going to make it happen.

“Pasta, I think he had a three-minute shift, he was barely skating, and he still got the goal there. I think it shows you how high his skill set is and how great a player he is in this league.”

Pastrnak is starting to look more like himself offensively, and that's encouraging for the Bruins as they enter Thursday's showdown against the high-powered Oilers.

Morgan Geekie's resurgence

Geekie was a valuable player for the Bruins last season with his ability to play center or on the wing, and provide much-needed scoring depth with a career-high 17 goals. He started the 2024-25 campaign as the second-line right wing, but he was unable to make much of an impact and was even made a healthy scratch a few times by previous head coach Jim Montgomery.

Geekie has played much better of late. He scored Boston's second goal against the Flames at 4:14 of the third period, giving him goals in back-to-back games for the first time all season.

He scored one goal with one assist versus the Canucks last weekend. And in his last six games, Geekie has four goals, two assists and 18 shots on net.

Geekie didn't score this season until his 12th game, and then he scored once in the next 10 games. But he's now playing with a lot of confidence, and that's exactly what the Bruins need. They still rank 26th in goals scored per game at 2.61, and for that number to improve, middle-six forwards such as Geekie need to be more consistent offensively.

Bruins still need better starts

Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

The ability to come back and win is needed, and the Bruins have been better of late in being able to erase deficits and find their game after a slow start. But catch-up hockey is often losing hockey, and the Bruins need to start games much better to become a real threat in the Eastern Conference.

The B's didn't lead for a single second against the Flames. It was their fourth win of the season without leading for any amount of time. They've actually had zero seconds of lead time in four of their last five games.

Boston didn't allow a goal in the first period versus the Flames, but Calgary did have a 19-6 edge in shot attempts, a 9-4 lead in shots on net, a 6-2 scoring chance advantage and a 4-1 high-danger chance lead during 5-on-5 in the opening 20 minutes. And then the Flames jumped out to a 2-0 lead early in the second period (two goals in the first 81 seconds) and entered the second intermission up 3-1.

Earlier on the road trip, the Bruins trailed 2-0 to both the Jets and Kraken after the first period. They ended up losing those games by a combined score of 13-2. For the season, the B's have a minus-6 goal differential in the first period, and they rank 21st in time leading at 585:26 in 33 games, per Natural Stat Trick.

The Bruins have shown impressive resilience to overcome some bad starts and earn two points from some of these games, particularly since the coaching change in November. But that's not a sustainable path to success.

"It felt like we still had a ton of confidence we could come back," Bruins captain Brad Marchand told reporters postgame. "A period is a long time in this league. Confidence and belief are dangerous. If you have that, you can make it happen. We've done it a few times recently where we've pushed in the third period. We're starting to have that belief again that we can come back in those situations.

"We need to be better not getting in this position and having the breakdowns we did in the second period. But at the end of the day, the points are huge for us right now."