‘My dad would be proud’ of last-second goal against Avs

In the closing seconds of the second period — and with Boston clinging to a 2-1 lead — Geekie beat out an icing after Pastrnak chipped a puck down the ice toward Colorado goalie Scott Wedgewood. 

By the time Geekie corralled the puck at the end boards, there was just 6.7 seconds left in the period. 

Pressed for time and unable to put a puck on net, Geekie instead pounced as Wedgewood shifted to his left — tucking a puck past the netminder with a quick bid from the inside post to give Boston a 3-1 lead with just 4.5 seconds left on the clock.

Geekie’s sneaky shot and his willingness to play to the whistle gave Boston a two-goal cushion going into the final 20 minutes of play — and served as the Bruins’ game-winning goal en route to a much-needed 3-2 victory over Colorado. 

“Yeah, my dad would be proud of that one, probably,” Geekie said of playing to the final seconds of the period. “It was maybe the perfect storm. I mean, that’s not going to happen every time. But when you get those opportunities to get in behind the D like that, I’m just trying to get it on net as fast as I can.” 

Given both the skill present on Colorado’s roster and Boston’s struggles with manufacturing some breathing room while holding leads as of late, Sturm believed that Geekie’s last-second goal shifted the fortunes of a Bruins team (4-6) that was in desperate need of a break to go their way. 

“I thought that was the biggest goal today, probably besides the first goal [from Viktor Arvidsson]. But going into the [third] period with a two-goal lead, I think that was huge for us,” Sturm said. “But again, there was only a few seconds left, but it started with almost like a breakout. We know they’re going to pinch hard and Geeks was pushing the pace.” 

The Bruins aren’t expecting Geekie to go 0-to-60 down the ice in the same vein as Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, or Martin Necas. 

But Geekie’s motor, willingness to engage down low, and knack for pepping the net made him the type of player that Boston wanted to invest in after a breakout 33-goal campaign in 2024-25. 

Fresh off of inking a six-year, $33 million contract extension in late June, Geekie has done little to stoke fears that his scoring surge last winter was an outlier.

Through 10 games, Geekie has now found the back of the net six times, and he’s currently on a 49-goal pace across an 82-game season. 

“I think it’s just a great example of playing ’til the last whistle,” Jeremy Swayman said of Geekie’s goal. “It’s hard to do. We had a lot of games in a short amount of time, and he’s a player that doesn’t give up on any play, so it’s really good to see him get success.

“There’s no wonder why he has so much success early on. It’s a sneaky little shot, and I gave him a little kudos for it. But it’s exactly what we want as this team, as a culture.” Geekie’s tally wasn’t the lone factor that helped Boston get off the schneid. 

A strong showing in net from Swayman (31 saves) helped negate some of the quality chances that the Avalanche managed to generate, while a committed defensive approach from Sturm’s skaters — headlined by 34 total blocks — snuffed out some of Colorado’s firepower. 

It’s a formula that the Bruins will need to continue to rely on if they plan on putting their extended losing streak in the rearview mirror. 

“I spoke a lot about just the character of the guys we had, and I think we came in yesterday and had a long video session and a lot of teaching and cleaned up a lot of those things today,” Geekie said of Boston’s response. “Obviously, there’s still room for improvement, and we’re not going to stop at one. But it’s a good step in the right direction. It’s really easy to build off a game like today.”

 

Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.