Rod Brind’Amour: “We Needed to Kill Those Penalties”

The Boston Bruins opened their Western Conference series against Carolina Hurricanes with a win last night. Bruce Cassidy’s guys demolished the guests from Raleigh in the final period of the game, when they scored four goals and reached a 5-2 victory.

In the last 20 minutes, the Bruins were unstoppable, but it needs to be pointed out that the Hurricanes had problems with penalties, which eventually decided this match.

Right at the start of the period, after 49 seconds of play, Jordan Stall had to go out for two minutes after he boarded Chris Wagner. During that power play, the home team equalized to 2-2.

Marcus Johansson was closest to the puck after Petr Mrazek saved deflected Brad Marchand’s shot, and the 28-year old had no troubled while executing.

But that wasn’t the end of the agony for the Hurricanes who gave away another powerplay goal, just 28 seconds after that one.

In between Dougie Hamilton received a minor penalty for roughing on Joakim Nordstrom, and the punishment arrived instantly. Patrice Bergeron’s one-timer from the slot ended behind Mrazek’s back.

Things changed completely on the ice of the TD Garden.

Now, this was unknown territory for the Hurricanes who used to keep the lead when having one in these playoffs.

“We took a couple penalties against that good power play and that cost us the game,” Hurricanes center Sebastian Aho said.

Aho himself scored a goal to tie the game at 1-1 in the first period. Later on, the guests took the lead in the second sequence, through Greg McKegg, but that wasn’t enough for them to stun the Bruins and win.

“We’re not going to win if we don’t play better than that,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said.

Brind’Amour was also convinced that the penalties were one of the main, if not the main reason for a defeat. Hurricanes couldn’t get over that, especially in the position when they had to chase the result against a team who had the momentum and the crowd behind him.

Rod Brind'Amour addressed the media following the Bruins' Game 1 win over the Hurricanes. pic.twitter.com/66KbLxBz8c

— NESN (@NESN) May 10, 2019

“The third period, obviously, the penalties put us back. We were on (our) heels right from the start, so we never recovered.”

He also added that despite what many think about the penalties, and whether the decision of the officials was good or not, his team needed to do better and kill them.

“We took penalties. We needed to kill them,” Brind’Amour said, ruling out any talks about the decision making of the officials . “Whether they’re good or not, whether there were some let go we thought should have been called.”

This was the first loss for the Hurricanes after six straight wins. After eliminating the Capitals in seven games, Carolina was ruthless against the Islanders, and they swept the team from the Big Apple in four matches.

Petr Mrazek was back in the team after 10 days of rest, because of an injury. Judging by the result, some might think that the Czech goalie didn’t perform well enough, but the truth is totally the opposite. Mrazek had 23 saves, and he did everything in his power to prevent this loss, but he simply couldn’t.

Coach Brind’Amour acknowledges that, saying that all players in front didn’t do their part of the job well enough.

“Petr was fine,” Brind’Amour said. “We left him out to dry there at the end, but I thought he was solid.”

This isn’t anything alarming for the Hurricanes who opened their series against Washington with two straight defeats on the road. But if they don’t improve the discipline, things could get rough for them.

During the regular part of the season, they had a negative deficit against the Bruins, losing after overtimes at TD Garden, while splitting a win and a defeat at home.

Game 2 is this Sunday at 3 p.m. ET, at the same place.