Bruins Notes: ‘Pressure’ Turns Surefire Win Into Excruciating Loss

The Bruins folded under pressure on Saturday.

Boston needed to kill less than four minutes to secure a win at Canadian Tire Centre, protecting a two-goal lead after dominating major stretches of the second and third periods. Ottawa was playing with nothing to lose at that point and parlayed that desperation into a pair of goals from Nick Jensen and Josh Norris.

The Senators played without a goalie, applied pressure in the offensive zone, forced overtime, scored the only goal in the shootout and won.

Not great!

“We had an opportunity to make it 6-3,” Bruins interim head coach Joe Sacco said postgame, as seen on NESN. “We didn’t do that, so then they came back. We broke down in our coverage because they were hungrier around our net. We had opportunities below the goal line, on the (fourth) goal, to get the puck out. We had some bad coverage on the (fifth) goal, which was the same thing, just spending time in our own zone.”

The Bruins had been flying high before they needed to protect a lead, ratcheting up the physicality in a game that had fights, roughing penalties and scrums after nearly every stoppage over the final two periods.

Sacco was fine with all of that but knew it wasn’t enough.

“I had no problem with our intensity in that game,” Sacco said. “I thought we showed up after the first few minutes… we were moving, we were physical, we were involved in the game. I had no issues from that standpoint, we just have to be able to close out games — obviously, in situations like that, we need to be better under pressure.”

Boston dropped a heartbreaker, just minutes after looking like it would add to its winning streak.

Bruins-Senators produced some other noteworthy items on Saturday:

— Brad Marchand was a non-participant during the overtime period, nor was he used during the shootout.

— The Senators and Bruins were essentially playing for the final wild-card spot, with the home team sliding ahead with plenty of time left to go.

— Mark Kastelic fought former teammate Zack Ostapchuk, leveling him with a couple of rights to celebrate his return to Ottawa.

— The Bruins will return home on Monday, as they’re scheduled to host the San Jose Sharks in a matinee matchup at TD Garden. It’ll be the first matchup between the two sides this season, with things scheduled to get underway at 1 p.m. ET, following an hour of pregame coverage on NESN.