Just how long the Bruins’ contract standoff with No. 1 goalie Jeremy Swayman lasts remains to be seen, but Joonas Korpisalo gave an indication on Tuesday that he might be able to hold down the fort until a deal gets done.
Korpisalo, looking to relocate his game after a bad season in Ottawa, stopped all the shots he saw in29:39 of action in his first preseason action as a Bruin and the B’s sailed to 4-2 win over Washington at the Garden.
It was a game that was again light on established NHLers, but competition for skater positions heated up. The B’s saw two young players – Fabian Lysell and Georgii Merkulov, who they needed to show up – make an impact in the win. Lysell scored a goal and drew two penalties, while Merkulov had a nice assist and drew a penalty.
The B’s took the first lead of the game when Riley Tufte got on the board at 11:51 – with a little bit of help from Washington goalie Hunter Shepard. Tufte fired a low shot on net from the left side of the slot.. Shepard made the initial save but, when the puck popped in the air, he tried to glove it and instead put it right between his own pads.
Meanwhile, Korpisalo stopped all five shots in the first, and a few of them were testers. The first one he faced came off a clean break-in that he was able to get his stick on. He also faced a couple of one-timers on a Washington power play that he handled with ease.
There was more jump noticeable in two young players trying to stick. Merkulov drew a penalty late in the first period and, on that power play at the start of the second period, Lysell drew another penalty.
The B’s didn’t score on the short 5-on-3, but with time running out on the second penalty, Lysell showed the kind of skill that made him a first-round pick in 2021. Allowed some time and space in the left circle, Lysell used a Tyler Johnson screen to snipe a shot just inside the post that gave the B’s 2-0 lead at 2:59 of the second.
Veteran Patrick Brown gave the B’s a 3-0 lead when, after Washington’s first real sustained pressure, Brown played give-and-go with Ian Mitchell through the neutral zone. Off Mitchell’s return pass in the high slot, Brown fired a low shot that beat Shepard low to the stick side at 9:46.
Korpisalo departed the game having stopped all seven shots he faced, but the Caps got on the board on their eighth shot. In a pileup in front of the net, Michael DiPietro could not smother the puck before Pierre-Luc Dubois poked it over to Connor McMichael for an easy goal.
Merkulov helped the B’s regain their three-goal lead early in the third period. Taking the puck on the left side, Merkulov made a pretty back hand pass to Justin Brazeau, who made an equally nifty backhand chip over Shepard’s shoulder.
The Caps’ Andrew Cristall scored in the final minute but it didn’t kill the reasonably good vibes of the night.
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