Bruins goalie leaves with injury, rookie makes his debut

BOSTON — Bruins goalie Joonas Korpisalo was slow to get up after a collision with Miles Wood in front of the net with 13:47 left in the second period of Thursday’s game against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

There was a media timeout right after the play, so Korpisalo would have skated to the Boston bench anyway. But when play resumed, he didn’t return to the goal leaving rookie Michael DiPietro to make his Boston debut.

He played for just over six minutes (6:03) and made two saves before Korpisalo returned. There was no announcement on the injury, but a short absence followed by a quick return can often indicate that a player was flagged and then cleared by a concussion spotter.

DiPietro had been called up from Providence on en emergency basis while the Bruins goalies were at the Olympics. Management chose to keep him with the varsity for Thursday’s game instead of activating Jeremy Swayman, who had just returned. Swayman is expected to start on Saturday.

DiPietro, 26, is in the midst of an outstanding season with Providence. He leads AHL goalies in goals against average (1.76) and save percentage (.938). He had a 22-6-0 record for the first-place P-Bruins.

A native of Windsor, Ontario, DiPietro was originally selected by Vancouver in the third round (64th overall) of the 2017 NHL Draft.

He’s the Bruins’ first Canadian born goalie to appear in a game since Malcolm Subban played his only career game in 2017.

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