Bruins Survive Wild Third-Period Chaos, Down Sharks 6-4
Boston needed a William Borgen empty-netter at 19:32 of the third to finally put San Jose away, capping a third period that featured six goals and a lead change. The Sharks had actually taken a 3-2 advantage early in the third before the Bruins rattled off three straight to seize control — then had to survive one last San Jose push.
The first two periods were a study in back-and-forth hockey that refused to give either team breathing room. Casey Mittelstadt opened the scoring at 3:08 of the first with a wrist shot, assisted by Elias Lindholm and James Hagens, putting Boston up 1-0. San Jose answered quickly — Michael Misa backhanded one past Jeremy Swayman at 5:54 to tie it. The second period followed the same script: Marat Khusnutdinov gave Boston a 2-1 lead on a backhand at 8:20, and Kiefer Sherwood erased it with an unassisted snap shot at 13:34 to make it 2-2 heading to the third. Two periods, four goals, zero separation.
The third period is where this game got genuinely strange. Dmitry Orlov's slap shot at 4:03 gave San Jose its first lead of the night at 3-2, and it looked like the Sharks might actually steal this one. Then Boston flipped a switch. David Pastrnak tied it at 8:27. James Hagens put the Bruins back in front at 9:07 — just 40 seconds later. Fraser Minten extended it to 5-3 at 12:00. Three goals in under four minutes. The story of the night was that third-period sequence; Boston didn't just respond to adversity, they buried San Jose under it. Then Will Smith snapped one home at 12:27 — assisted by Jacob Trouba and Macklin Celebrini — to make it a one-goal game at 5-4, and the tension crept back in. Borgen's empty-net wrist shot at 19:32 finally closed the door.
On the goaltending side, Jeremy Swayman stopped 21 of 25 shots for Boston, while Alex Nedeljkovic made 29 saves on 34 shots for San Jose. Nedeljkovic's workload was heavier, and it appears Boston's shot volume was a meaningful factor in how this one played out. Mittelstadt, Hagens, and Minten each finished with a goal and an assist for the Bruins. Jacob Trouba led San Jose with two assists. The Sharks showed enough in that third-period lead to suggest they're not simply rolling over for anyone, but Boston's ability to rattle off three goals in four minutes when it mattered most looks like the difference between a competitive team and a dangerous one.