Streaking Bruins continue West swing at Knights

The Vegas Golden Knights viewed last Saturday's 5-1 victory over the Nashville Predators, which snapped a franchise-record five-game home losing streak, as the spark for a much-needed turnaround.

Then came Monday night's 3-0 loss at Colorado.

Now Vegas (32-25-4, 68 points) returns home to begin a four-game homestand on Wednesday night against one of the hottest teams in the NHL, the Boston Bruins.

Boston (35-17-8, 78 points) comes in on a season-best six-game winning streak and has won the first three games of its western road swing, including a wild 6-5 overtime victory at San Jose on Monday night.

The Golden Knights suffered just their second shutout loss of the season to Colorado, failing to beat Semyon Varlamov on 40 shots on net. Vegas, which has just 21 games remaining, fell 11 points behind first-place Calgary, which has two games in hand, in the Pacific Division and 10 points behind the second-place Sharks, who also have a game in hand.

"Extremely disappointing to come out with the effort we had tonight," defenseman Jon Merrill told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "We were feeling good about ourselves after the Nashville game. Just a reality check I guess. Now we go back home and get back to the drawing board and hope to get another win on Wednesday."

"It's tough to have a game like we did against Nashville and come out -- important game, important points -- and blow it," defenseman Brayden McNabb added. "This is a crucial time of the year. ... Playoffs are (21) games away and we're having games like this. It's unacceptable for everyone, myself included. We've got to figure it out in this dressing room for sure."

The Bruins, second in the Atlantic Division behind Tampa Bay, come in blazing hot, winning eight of their last nine games, with the lone loss to the Rangers in a shootout, 4-3.

Charlie McAvoy's goal with 1:01 remaining in overtime won Monday's contest at San Jose after the Bruins blew a 3-0 lead. Boston rallied to send the game into OT on a controversial goal by Chris Wagner with 1:49 left in regulation. The Sharks argued that Wagner had knocked the puck down toward the net with a stick above shoulder level.

"Resilient," McAvoy said of his team's performance. "I mean, you never want to let up a big lead like we did, but those things happen in hockey. ... We never say die."

It was the third win in four nights in California for the Bruins, who began the trip with a 3-0 victory at Anaheim on Friday and then defeated the Los Angeles Kings, 4-2, on Saturday. After Wednesday night's game in Las Vegas against the Golden Knights, Boston finishes the trip with a game at St. Louis on Saturday.

"It's get on the plane tonight, get out of here quick and get on to the next one," McAvoy said shortly after Monday night's game-winner. "All the teams in the West are playing really good right now. It's a challenge every single night."

This is the second of two regular-season meetings between the Bruins and Golden Knights. Boston won the first one, 4-1, on Nov. 11 at TD Garden behind a 37-save performance by Jaroslav Halak.

--Field Level Media