Bruins dumped at home by Connor McDavid, Oilers, 3-1

Steve Conroy, Boston Herald on Dec 18, 2025

Published in Hockey

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BOSTON — The Bruins did a reasonably good job of shutting down Connor McDavid at 5-on-5 on Thursday night at TD Garden, but they learned the hard way that the Oilers captain can beat you in many ways.

McDavid had a primary assist on a power-play goal and scored a vintage he-makes-it-look-easy short-handed goal to lead the Oilers to a 3-1 victory over the B’s.

Meanwhile, the B’s could get very little going at 5-on-5 as they dropped the second contest in a five-game homestand.

For the fifth game in a row, the Bruins allowed the first goal of the game. Up until that point, they had done a good job of bottling up McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and company either in the neutral zone or just inside the blue line.

But when Mark Kastelic was called for tripping old friend Trent Frederic, the Oilers’ top-ranked power play went to work. Frederic, who was given a nice hand from the crowd when his obligatory welcome-back video was played, very well may have tripped on a fellow Oiler.

Nonetheless, it didn’t take long for Edmonton to cash in. McDavid took a Draisaitl feed at the side of the net and he calmly waited for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to sneak behind Sean Kuraly at the opposite post. McDavid hit him for a perfect redirect goal for the 1-0 Edmonton lead at 13:38 of the first period.

But the Bruins’ power play isn’t bad, either, and it got them back to even at 16:27 of the first on a nice give-and-go. With Darnell Nurse in the box for tripping Marat Khusnutdinov, Elias Lindholm gained the blue line after taking a neutral zone feed from Pavel Zacha and sifted a return pass to Zacha for a clean break-in. Zacha beat Tristan Jarry with a pretty backhander for his ninth goal of the season.

The B’s tempted fate when they took another penalty at the start of the second period — an Andrew Peeke high stick on McDavid — but this time they were able to kill it.

Much of the second period was low-event hockey as the B’s continued to do a good job of limiting the big guns’ chances.

But a pair of Edmonton fourth-liners combined to put the Oilers back on top, and against the B’s top line no less. Former short-time Bruin Max Jones came out of the corner with the puck and got a shot off that that handcuffed Jeremy Swayman. The rebound went into the danger area where Quinn Hutson pounced on it and tucked it behind Swayman for his first NHL goal and point.

At the other end, the Oilers were forced to make a goalie change when Jarry appeared to injure himself reaching for a wide shot. In went Calvin Pickard and the B’s tested him a couple of times, but they faced a one-goal deficit heading into the third. Pickard would not be beaten the rest of the way.

The B’s were given a great chance when they got their second power play 30 seconds into the third. But while McDavid couldn’t get loose at 5-on-5, he did so on the penalty kill to drive a dagger of a shorthanded goal into the B’s hearts.

After Pickard was able to just get his glove on a fluttering puck, Nugent-Hopkins gave McDavid the puck and Oiler captain had some giddyup going. He blew past Charlie McAvoy and then beat Swayman with a backhander to make it 3-1 at 1:41 of the third.

The B’s had one last chance to make it a game when Vasily Podkolzin was called for slashing with 5:31 remaining, but the B’s could not pull any closer.