Game 28: Bruins Lose Three in a Row on the Road

While March is the month where folks focus on college basketball, the Boston Bruins are currently in the midst of their own "March Madness."

On Tuesday night, the Bruins continued their road trip as they traveled to Winnipeg to take on the Jets. The B's were looking for the season sweep since they had won the previous two meetings. 

Although the Bruins were coming off of a tough loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Jets were fighting for first place in the Southeast Division. Playing in Winnipeg is always a challenge, but when you throw in the fact that the Jets were battling for supremacy in the Southeast, this was fixing to be a tough game for the B's.

Heading into this game, the Bruins had to recall Ryan Spooner from the Providence Bruins on an emergency basis. He centered the first line with Milan Lucic and Nathan Horton. This move was made because David Krejci was unable to skate on Tuesday night. He was struck in the knee by a slap shot on Sunday, but he did not suffer any broken bones and is listed as day-to-day.

In the first period, the Jets really took it to the Bruins. They were very aggressive on the forecheck, leaving the B's confused and often backed up in their own zone. On a related note, defenseman Adam McQuaid suffered an upper-body injury after being checked into the boards by Jets forward Eric Tangradi and missed the rest of the game. Regardless, the Bruins outshot the Jets 10-9 in the opening period and had two power play opportunities, but failed to capitalize on either one of them. 

The second period continued with some fast-paced puck movement. It all started when Brad Marchand recorded his 13th goal of the season just eight seconds into the period. This came about after the puck took an odd bounce off of the boards and it fell right to his stick. From that point on, it was all Boston. The Bruins had several other heavy rushes and scoring opportunities, but it remained a one-goal game after two periods. 

In the third period, the Jets came storming back and beat Tuukka Rask with two quick goals to take the lead. Blake Wheeler (power play) and Evander Kane recorded the tallies for Winnipeg. The Bruins made one last push to get the equalizer, but Wheeler added his second goal of the game in empty-net fashion to seal the 3-1 victory.

The Bruins will play their next game on Thursday night when they take on the Ottawa Senators.

Gold Star: Daniel Paille...Even though he did not record a point, he played a very heavy game. He was productive and he made things happen all over the ice.

Black Star: Jordan Caron...He tried to be physical, but he was no match for the Jets defenders. He also had the costly penalty that led to the tying goal.