By Canadian Press

Brad Marchand scores overtime winner as Bruins beat Flames 2-1

Feb 19, 2018 | 5:15 PM

CALGARY — Brad Marchand scored his 22nd goal in overtime Monday afternoon to give the Boston Bruins a 2-1 victory over the Calgary Flames.

After a turnover deep in the Flames end, Riley Nash sprung the Bruins leading scorer on a breakaway and Marchand made no mistake, slipping the puck through the pads of David Rittich.

David Pastrnak also scored for Boston (36-13-8). The Bruins moved within one point of the Tampa Bay Lightning for first in the Atlantic Division. Boston holds two games in hand.

Matthew Tkachuk scored for Calgary (30-21-9). The Flames fell to 1-3-4 in their last eight games at the Scotiabank Saddledome.

Meeting for the second time in six days, Calgary was territorially outplayed by a wide margin in the first period but Rittich kept the Flames in it.

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Calgary tied it 1-1 at 5:28 of the second, striking on the power play. Sean Monahan’s shot was stopped by Tuukka Rask, but as the puck lied at the feet of Zdeno Chara in the crease, Tkachuk knocked in his 22nd goal.

The red-hot Tkachuk has 14 goals in his last 22 games.

Rittich was starting his fourth game in a row with veteran Mike Smith (lower body) still sidelined. It was a nice bounce-back effort from Rittich. He was pulled Saturday night after giving up four goals on 15 shots.

The 25-year-old Czech was especially sharp in keeping the score 1-1.

A minute after Calgary tied it, Rittich slid across the crease to get a glove on Marchand’s backhand out of mid-air after he was set up by Patrice Bergeron.

Late in the second, Rittich stabbed out his glove to rob Ryan Spooner on a breakway. In the third, he stared down on Pastrnak on a breakaway and acrobatically got the toe of his left pad on his dangerous chance.

Rittich finished with 30 stops to fall to 6-3-3.

Rask was also coming off a shortened outing in his previous start, pulled after giving up four goals on eight shots in the first period against Vancouver.

Rask had 28 saves to improve to 24-10-4.

Boston struck first at 5:59 when Michael Frolik coughed up the puck along the sideboards in his own end and Pastrnak pounced on it, quickly firing a shot past Rittich on his blocker side.

Notes: Flames D Travis Hamonic played in his 500th career game… Calgary LW Morgan Klimchuk, who was drafted in 2013, made his NHL debut on a line with C Matt Stajan and RW Curtis Lazar. Every player selected in the first round of that draft has now played an NHL game… The Bruins improved to 9-1-3 in their last 13 games against Calgary… Boston improved to 23-1-5 when they score first.

The Canadian Press