It seems as if matinee games on Saturdays have become the norm for the Boston Bruins. In fact, only one of their five Saturday games in the month of March will be played at night.
Regardless, all the B's can do is just play the schedule on hand. That is what they did on Saturday afternoon against the Washington Capitals.
The Caps grabbed a huge win against Boston over a week ago. Unfortunately, they really were unable to build on that momentum since that night. They lost three of their next five games coming into their showdown with the Bruins.
As for the Black and Gold, they were looking to secure back-to-back wins at home after knocking off the Florida Panthers, another Southeast Division team. They have had good success against that division so far this season, so this game looked promising.
Anton Khudobin got the start in goal for the Bruins as he opposed Michal Neuvirth of the Caps. Adam McQuaid made his return to the lineup as well.
The first period was controlled by the Bruins, specifically the first line. Nathan Horton and David Krejci each recorded a goal in the opening period. Milan Lucic, their linemate, had an assist on both goals.
The second period started to get chippy. Matt Hendricks of the Capitals played the role of instigator as he drew the interest of several Bruins players who wanted to drop the gloves. He eventually got into it with Horton, but not before Brad Marchand had a scrap with Mike Ribeiro.
There was some scoring in the second period as Marcus Johansson (WSH) capitalized on a bad turnover and stuck the puck past Khudobin. Andrew Ference increased the Bruins lead again after some solid passing from Horton and Krejci.
The physical play continued in the third period, mostly due to the chippiness showed by Hendricks. It was at that point where McQuaid took things into his own hands and pounded on Hendricks. Aside from a goal by Rich Peverley on the power play, not much else happened in the final 20 minutes. The Bruins won an exciting game on this day with a final score of 4-1. Khudobin finished with 32 saves, some of them were highlight material.
The Bruins will be back on the ice Sunday afternoon when they travel to Pittsburgh to take on the Penguins.
Gold Star: Nathan Horton (1 goal, 2 assists, plus-2 rating)...The Gordie Howe hat-trick for the power forward was a great way to break out of the slump he has been having.
Black Star: Jay Pandolfo...This was not his type of game. He did see some time on the penalty kill in this one.
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