The Bruins’ gutsy win over the Capitals shows the buy-in under Sacco

BOSTON – Ten seconds into the third period, the Boston Bruins were down by two forwards. David Pastrnak was out for the third time because of an upper-body injury. Oliver Wahlstrom was given a five-minute penalty for boarding and a game misconduct.

The game against the Washington Capitals, who had the best record in the NHL, one point behind the Winnipeg Jets and New Jersey Devils, ended in a draw.

This is where the Bruins, who had struggled badly in the third period of this season, might have collapsed. It would have been easy to concede a goal in the shootout and then take chances to come back, concede another goal and lose.

But they didn’t. In fact, they didn’t allow a single shot on goal on the power play.

When asked what they did well, Elias Lindholm replied: “Honestly, I think everything.”

It would be the difference. Ultimately, they scored three straight goals in the third game, one each from a suddenly on-fire team of Lindholm, Brad Marchand and Charlie Coyle, as they beat the Capitals 4-1 in their final game before the holiday break.

“It was at the top,” interim head coach Joe Sacco said of the game being one of the team’s tests of courage this season. “I think when you put two forwards behind like we did in the third period, on the five-minute kick in the third period, there was some adversity there that we faced. That certainly says a lot about the team tonight and their effort and determination.”

While the Bruins are still developing, they are a far cry from the team that vacillated from mediocre to poor at the start of the season, a far cry from the team that lost four of five games in November and forced general manager Don Sweeney to resign .

Since the coaching change on Nov. 19, the Bruins are 11-4-1, after an 8-9-3 start that cost coach Jim Montgomery his job. That’s not to say the Bruins were great. But they were a lot better than the lackluster group that was reeling from the shock of a coaching change.

They have taken nine out of 10 points in their last five games, the only blemish being an overtime loss at the Edmonton Oilers. Marchand is now on a 10-game point streak in which he scored 13 points (seven goals, six assists), the third time in his career that he has reached double figures.

But all was not well. Finally, Pastrnak was not used for the third time. There was no update on his status after the game.

Perhaps Sacco’s best move recently was bringing Coyle alongside Marchand and Lindholm. Even though they haven’t been together long, the line has found comfort and the chemistry is there. They also found the score sheet. In addition to Marchand’s three points (one goal, two assists) on Monday, Coyle had a goal and an assist, and Lindholm scored a goal.