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Bruins Come Back, Beat Islanders 3-2 at Home

Originally posted on The Hockey Writers | By Ryan Ventura | Last updated Oct 29, 2025 12:20 AM ET

The Boston Bruins took on the New York Islanders on Tuesday night (Oct. 28) at the TD Garden. Heading into the contest, it was a story of two teams coming off very different stretches. The Islanders had won four out of five, with their star teenage rookie defenseman Matthew Schaeffer being the talk of the league. The Bruins, on the other hand, had lost eight of nine after starting the season winning three in a row. They hit their low point of the season on Monday night in a road game against the Ottawa Senators, allowing seven goals and losing the game by five. The puck dropped with the Bruins looking to turn their struggles around and the Islanders looking to keep their momentum going.

Game Recap

It was all Islanders to start the game. Just over a minute into the contest, the Islanders found themselves in transition, and Bo Horvat beat Bruins’ netminder Joonas Korpisalo on a wrist shot from the slot. The rest of the period did not go much better for the Bruins. Nikita Zadorov committed a tripping penalty on Matt Barzal less than four minutes after the Islanders had netted their first goal. Barzal found himself on his behind on the ice but was able to corral the puck and keep it in the Bruins’ zone for a 6-on-5.

After over 30 seconds of puck movement, Barzal found Kyle Palmieri for a backdoor one-timer, putting the Islanders up two. For the remainder of the period, the ice was tilted towards the Bruins’ goal. They were unable to sustain any meaningful pressure on the Islanders’ net, only mustering up four shots on goal over the first 20 minutes.

Drouin Horvat#LGI | @ford pic.twitter.com/1Xo7TGwUoz
— New York Islanders (@NYIslanders) October 28, 2025

Whatever Bruins’ coach Marco Sturm said to his team during the first intermission worked. They came out firing in the second period. Four minutes into the frame, the Bruins were on the power play. With the puck on the goal line, Pavel Zacha found a waiting Elias Lindholm in the right circle, who one-timed it home, cutting the Islanders’ lead in half. This seemed to ignite the Bruins offensively.

David Pastrnak found the back of the net on a wrist shot from about the same spot as Lindholm’s goal just minutes later, tying the game. The matchup did not remain knotted for long; fifty-nine seconds after Pastrnak’s snipe, Charlie McAvoy tossed the puck on net, ricocheting off Michael Eyssimont into the Islanders’ goal to give the Bruins the lead. Shots ended up favoring the Bruins in the second period by a total of 11-10, and the Bruins took their one goal lead into the third period.

MAC MIKEY pic.twitter.com/wxChHXFbCH
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) October 29, 2025

While the Islanders were able to put together some solid pressure in the third period, Korpisalo was able to save each of the 15 shots he faced, holding onto the Bruins’ lead. Morgan Geekie scored on a wrist shot six minutes into the final frame with the Bruins on the power play, and Fraser Minten put the icing on the cake with an empty netter with just over three to go in the game.

Their five goals in the contest matches the Bruins’ high mark on the season, and the three-goal win matched their largest margin of victory in the young campaign as well. These teams will meet again next week in New York for their second of three matchups on the season, the third of which will come the night before Thanksgiving. They each will take the ice again on Thursday, as the Bruins take on the Sabres in Buffalo and the Islanders head to North Carolina to take on the hurricanes.