After a controversial loss on Saturday afternoon to the Vancouver Canucks, a team that is turning into their new rivals north of the boarder, the Bruins were back in action Tuesday night against the Winnipeg Jets. Boston took this game by a score of 5-3.
Tuukka Rask got the start in goal for Boston. Rask has now won his last six decisions with shutouts in three of his last five. He opposed Ondrej Pavelec, who is still winless playing at the TD Garden.
The opening period consisted of both teams exchanging scoring chances. There were times when the two teams got caught too far up ice and that led to breakaways. Boston definitely had the better chances but they just failed to capitalize on them.
The Jets took the lead at 16:53 of the first period on a shot from Zach Bogosian and deflected in by Andrew Ladd. Nathan Horton netted his 13th goal of the season to tie the game with less than a minute remaining in the period. Milan Lucic and David Krejci had the assists. With the assist, Krejci extended his point streak to nine games.
The Jets nabbed two more goals in the second period. Blake Wheeler and Eric Fehr had the tallies. Bogosian and Tobias Enstrom each finished with two assists for Winnipeg.
Shawn Thornton had a very eventful period as he had a goal and a fight. As he was skating out of the penalty box at the end of a 5-on-3 power play for Winnipeg, he grabbed the puck and pursued the goal but was held along the way. That set up a short-handed penalty shot and he back-handed it past Pavelec. He later dropped the gloves with former Bruin Mark Stuart.
Rask stopped a penalty shot taken by Jets forward Chris Thorburn earlier in the game. This marked the first time in Bruins history that the team had both faced and taken a penalty shot in the same game.
Bruins head coach Claude Julien started to mix up the lines a bit from the second period on. He bumped up Gregory Campbell to the third line and stuck Zack Hamill on the fourth line. The move seemed to work since the B’s started to find their rhythm that created more scoring chances.
The Bruins came out firing in the third period. Horton scored his second goal of the game just eight seconds from the drop of the puck. Once again, Krejci and Lucic had the assists.
Boston dominated the entire period as they made it difficult for Winnipeg to leave their own zone. Tyler Seguin and Benoit Pouliot each added a goal in the period. Seguin’s goal was his first ever point against the Winnipeg/Atlanta franchise. Four Bruins players finished the game with two points each.
Solid performances in all three zones and good goaltending down the stretch by Rask contributed to the win. It may have taken until the final period to get it done, but that has been the story of the season so far for Boston.
The B’s will be back in action Thursday night when they welcome in the Montreal Canadiens.
Gold Star: Nathan Horton...He really seems to be feeling it now as he puts his slow start to the season behind him.
Black Star: Joe Corvo...A costly turnover and no production on the power play. It seems to be a recurring thing with him lately.
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