The Boston Bruins played back to back nights again (seems to be a scary trend) and had to travel between those games again.
The good part about it was that the opposing team did not have the advantage, as it was the Carolina Hurricanes that the Bruins played back to back with.
After the Canes suffered a 7-0 thumping at the hands of the Bruins on Monday afternoon, they looked to put in a better effort and not get embarrassed in the same fashion in their own barn.
First Period
The scoring did not take long to start. Just two minutes and four seconds into the game the Bruins were on the power play and Johnny Boychuk lets fly a missile from the point that caught Cam Ward’s blocker but not enough to make the save.
Jussi Jokinen was left all alone at Tim Thomas’ right side doorstep to pot in the power play goal to tie it up at one. Blake Wheeler failed to clear the puck on two Canes players that knocked him off the puck. The play was at the net where Eric Staal tried to get it on the left side, but it squirted out to the right to a wide open Jokinen and net.
Second Period
There was no scoring in the middle frame, but the Canes poured it on and grossly outshot the Bruins 19-9. Up to that point, Carolina had outshot Boston 38-20.
Third Period
The Bruins retook the lead with Zdeno Chara’s shot from the point that was stopped by Ward, but Brad Marchand was in front of the net with a quick shot at the rebound to bury it. Bruins up 2-1.
The Canes would not go away. They applied a lot of pressure and there was a scramble for a puck that wouldn’t settle down. Right after the puck took a pop fly, it dropped in a heap of B’s and Canes. After a short open ice scrum, the puck got to to a wide open Chad LaRose, who tied it up from Thomas’ immediate right side.
Just 1:30 later, the Bruins were on the power play and rookie Steven Kampfer skated it up to center ice, passed to Mark Recchi and skated behind the goal line, picking up a charging Milan Lucic who had nobody on him. Recchi passed it to Lucic who one-timed it past Ward’s left side to count as the game winning goal.
The Good
Tim Thomas. Out of 45 shots, he made 43 saves (Career High).
The Bad
Defensive miscues. Both teams allowed goals where a player was wide open right in front of their goalies. Boston allowed Jokinen and LaRose to score from the same spot and Carolina allowed Lucic to score by Jokinen leaving the front of the net to try and stop Recchi, who already had a defender hot on his heels.
The Ugly
45 SOG on Thomas. I know, I know…the Canes wanted to make a message and they certainly did with pressure applied throughout the game, but to allow 45 shots on your goalie is poor defense no matter how many ways you cut it.
Next up are the Buffalo Sabres at home on Thursday, January 20th at 7 p.m.
The Sabres are currently eight points out of a playoff spot with just four games to go before the All-Star Weekend coming up. They are playing well as of late with a 6-3-1 record in their last 10 games and just pulled off an overtime win against the Montreal Canadiens.
This is Cory Ducey saying “Hit Hard, but Keep It Clean”
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