Game Sixteen: Skating With The Devils

Tuesday was Military Appreciation Night at the TD Garden. Ironically, the Bruins went into battle against the New Jersey Devils. The B’s held off the Devils to take this game by a score of 4-3.

This was the first meeting of the season between the two teams and both were coming off of Saturday night victories. The Bruins have now won six straight games after starting the season with a 3-7-0 record.

Tim Thomas got the start in goal as he opposed Johan Hedberg. Both goaltenders have at least two game win streaks under their belt in this very early season. The Devils outshot the B’s 12-8 in a very physical opening period. Both teams combined for 25 hits in the first 20 minutes alone. The second line of Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, and Tyler Seguin had some great scoring chances and put a lot of pressure on the New Jersey defense.

The second period opened up more between the two teams. Due to a Marchand roughing penalty and a Johnny Boychuk delay of game penalty, the Bruins skated 5-on-3 defending the power play. At 10:46 of the second period, David Clarkson put the Devils on the board first. The goal snapped a 0 for 22 power play drought. Petr Sykora and Zack Parise had the assists.

At 14:52 of the second period, Chris Kelly tied the game up after he put the puck past Hedberg from a rebound shot by Gregory Campbell. That goal was Kelly’s fifth goal of the season.

It was only a matter of time before the second line produced on the scoreboard. Just six seconds into the third period, Marchand put the B’s on top for the first time in the game. Immediately after Bergeron won the face-off back to Zdeno Chara, he sent Marchand on a breakaway with a good pass. Marchand currently has a six game point streak.

After New Jersey tied the game up again less than two minutes later, Shawn Thornton put Boston back on top scoring his first goal of the season. Jordan Caron, who skated with the fourth line in the game, had an assist along with Campbell on the play. Many were wondering when the fourth line was going to break out and this was the game. Campbell had two assists, Thornton had a goal, and Caron had an assist.

Caron took the place of Benoit Pouliot on the fourth line and Pouliot skated on the third line. The switch benefited for both players because Pouliot gave the Bruins the lead with a little over three minutes remaining in the third period. The goal was assisted Joe Corvo and Rich Peverley.

Nick Palmieri had two goals and Parise had two assists for the Devils. Ilya Kovalchuk, New Jersey’s best offensive threat, ended up missing Tuesday’s game due to a lingering injury. A Devils team without the services of their star player gave the B’s all they could handle.

The Bruins will conclude their five game home stand Thursday night when they take on the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Gold Star: Gregory Campbell (2 assists, +2 rating)...A really great game for the fourth-line center. He knows how to do the little things right.

Black Star: David Krejci...Another one of those games where Krejci disappears. Besides that one good hit he delivered in the Bruins defensive end, not much to say about his game.