Staying Alive: Breaking Apart Bruins Game 5 Win

“Yeah, no, of course you get a little confidence coming into overtime,” he said. “You’ve been in those situations before. So as a veteran guy going out there, I just try to… I know you stick to those details, play hard defense.”

Marco Sturm has called for his best players to be his best players, and after Game 4, he said that it starts with the leadership group. They stepped up in Game 5.

“I’m telling you this: there’s only a few players I think who could do that. What I mean by that is it’s not the finish, but the way he doesn’t go offside,” Sturm said after the game. “And what a nice finish for him, I’m just pretty happy because, you know, this guy puts a lot of pressure on himself, and he wants to be the difference. And today it was.”

Pastrnak agrees that he puts a lot of pressure on himself, but knows it can be a good thing.

“I’ve been through a lot in my career, so, you know, use it as a motivation, and at the same time, sometimes it can be a little heavy, but like I said, I went through some tough moments, so I always bring myself back to the details and the little things. But at the end of the day, I just want to play well.”

Ahead of the game, Nikita Zadorov said that the team needs to “get back to our hockey, get back to our Boston identity, and get back to what we’ve been successful [at] through the year.” He even said that the Bruins need to “die on the ice,” if that’s what it takes to stay alive in the series.

They showed the resilience that has defined them this season. Hampus Lindholm said he thought the Bruins played their style of hockey in Game 5.

“We didn’t really get rewarded, but we kept going, kept going,” Lindholm said. “And that’s how you win this time of year, and we have to be patient.”

For the second game in a row, the Sabres scored first. In Game 4, they scored four times in the first 20 minutes. In Game 5, they were held to one – and that was all they had.

“It’s just the character we have in this locker room, it’s amazing,” Sturm said. “No surprise for me, though. We couldn’t wait to get out there today. Guys were dialed in. Our mindset was just there. That’s why there was, I don’t know, for some reason, there was no panic after they scored early.”

“Today, we had that vision in our mind like ‘we are going to go home to Boston,’ and that was our biggest goal.”

Now, the series shifts back to the TD Garden, where the Bruins have yet to win a game in the playoffs this year. They won 29 games on home ice during the regular season, which tied for the most in the league.

“They’re going to see a different Boston Bruins at home,” Hampus Lindholm said. “We’re going to play the game we’ve been here on the road, take that home.”

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