Hopefully, everyone around the National Hockey League enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday. Now that fans have binged on turkey and football, Black Friday was the day for hockey to resume.
The Boston Bruins were at the TD Garden to conclude a three-game homestand against the Winnipeg Jets.
The B's were coming off a very tough overtime loss on Monday night to the Pittsburgh Penguins, but they felt that they had the game won. That type of fire and motivation should have carried over to this game here.
Slowly but surely, the B's squad is inching its way back to full health. Even though it will be a few weeks before that actually happens, the Bruins wanted to end the month of November strong before they begin an incredibly difficult December schedule.
This was the first matchup of the season between these two teams. Winnipeg is hanging around the .500 mark, which is no small feat in a monumental Western Conference. The Jets are in flux--we do not know if they are buyers or sellers on the current roster. The Bruins should only be concerned on making the Jets believers in this B's team.
Tuukka Rask was in goal for the Bruins, as he opposed Michael Hutchinson. Chris Kelly made his return to the B's lineup after missing the last two games with an undisclosed injury.
The Jets jumped out to an early lead on the power play, putting the thought in the minds of everyone present at the Garden that this was going to be a long night for the home team. But thanks to Rask and the 35 total saves that he made in the game, the Bruins were in it the entire time.
Milan Lucic eventually tied the game up after tipping in a beautiful pass from Carl Soderberg, who tallied two assists in this one. The two teams stymied each other for the full sixty minutes, leading to a thrilling ending in overtime--Dougie Hamilton blasted the puck high glove-side after carrying the puck slightly into the offensive zone.
Boston won this game by a score of 2-1, grabbing two hard-earned points and setting up a Herculean stretch of contests.
The Bruins will start the month of December with a four-game road trip along the West Coast. This will be no easy task.
Gold Star: Tuukka Rask...The team has relied on him more than once to offset another sub-par offensive performance. He kept the Bruins in it the entire time and came up with the timely stops.
Black Star: Brad Marchand...Coach Claude Julien had some harsh words for him after the game--he alluded to him almost costing the Bruins the game because of his late and unnecessary high-sticking penalty. Even before that moment, he did not play a smart game.
Game Twenty-Four Box Score
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