Pastrnak struck with 38 seconds left in overtime to cap a furious third-period comeback as the Bruins topped the Flames, 4-3, Tuesday night at the suddenly subdued Scotiabank Saddledome.
“Yeah, it was kind of funny. We were just talking about it with [Charlie McAvoy]. We both were out there long, and I was yelling at him to keep [the puck], so I can change, and he just dropped it to me,” said Pastrnak. “He said, ‘You keep it,’ and he changed, so that’s kind of funny.”
Pastrnak didn’t keep it for long. He chugged it over the blue line and zapped a wrister past Dustin Wolf for his 12th of the season.
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“Just give the puck to 88 or 63 and then pray,” said Nikita Zadorov, describing the feeling on the bench in overtime. “So that’s the emotion. I mean they are our best players. So put it in their hands, they’re going to make it happen.
“Pasta, I think he had a three-minute shift, he was barely skating, and he still got the goal there. So, I think it shows you how high his skill set is and how great a player he is in this league for sure.”
Boston improved to 17-13-3 and 2-2 on this five-game Western swing.
The Bruins trailed, 3-1, entering the third but came out storming, scoring twice in the first seven minutes to tie things.
First it was Morgan Geekie snapping home a rebound of an Andrew Peeke shot in the slot at 4:14.
Just more than two minutes later, Marc McLaughlin knotted it. It was a textbook fourth-line goal, as McLaughlin forced a turnover in the slot and then buried his shot as he crashed Wolf’s den.
“[Elias Lindholm] made the play originally; he takes a hit to make a play,” said coach Joe Sacco. “Marchy stays on the puck and then Marc just crashes the net there and stays with a good second effort.
“This is a second effort league. and that was a good second effort by Marc.”
Zadorov took a pass from McAvoy just 30 seconds in and then took a bunch of, well, stuff from the C of Red. The Flames faithful let their former favorite defenseman have it with a cascade of boos from every corner of the old barn.
Did Zadorov hear them? By the sly smirk on the big Bruin’s face, he sure did. He was kind of expecting it as he had heard the catcalls last season when he was in a Canucks sweater.
“Oh yeah [I was smiling],” he said. “I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it was only one shift. So last year they booed every shift.”
The greeting was a bit different for Elias Lindholm, who was back in the ‘Dome for the first time since he, too, was shipped to Vancouver last season.
The Flames feted Lindholm with a nifty video tribute of some of his more memorable moments in red, including several highlight connections with the late, great Johnny Gaudreau.
The first 20 lacked a lot of highlights, with the Flames dominating possession and landing 9 shots to the Bruins’ 4.
It took the Flames (15-12-5) less than two minutes to seize control in the second with Matt Coronato and Nazem Kadri connecting on goals just 27 seconds apart.
Coronato, the former Harvard star, collected a loose puck in the circle to Jeremy Swayman’s right and rifled one to the back of the net for his eighth of the season just 54 seconds into the period.
More sloppy clearing led to the next goal on the very next shift. This time it was Kadri, snagging a gift bounce in the slot and sizzling it by Swayman at 1:21.
With the Saddledome sounding off, Sacco called a timeout to settle the Bruins, who did play better after the break.
Boston cut the deficit in half when it benefitted from a balky bounce off a Flame skate at the blue line. Lindholm grabbed it and raced in on Wolf, slipping a knuckler under the goalie’s right armpit for his fourth of the season at 6:31.
“Very special for him,” said Pastrnak. “He spent a lot of years here. You could kind of say he grew up here. So, that was special.”
Boston continued to tilt the ice in its favor over most of the second period, but couldn’t get the equalizer past Wolf.
The Flames then extended their lead to 3-1 when they caught the Bruins defense, which had been pushing the pace in the offensive end, at the end of a long shift.
Former UMainer Ryan Lomberg snagged a rebound of Connor Zary’s shot and snuck it by Swayman for his first with the Flames.
It was a killer goal coming from a fourth-line player who usually needs to consult Google Maps to navigate his way around the offensive end.
Still, the Bruins kept up their energy, landing several good chances on Wolf over the last two minutes of the period that ended at 3-1. Boston outshot Calgary, 19-5, the rest of the way.
“I was real proud of our effort in the third period. I thought the guys showed a lot of determination, never-say-die attitude, and good on them,” said Sacco.
“They worked forward in the third period. We did it the right way. We generated a lot of quality chances there and when you play that way, the result and the process will usually take care of itself.”
Jim McBride can be reached at james.mcbride@globe.com. Follow him @globejimmcbride.