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LIVE BLOG From the Garden: Boston Bruins vs. Minnesota Wild |
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FINAL SCORE: Minnesota 1 Boston 0. Quotes from Manny Fernandez, Blake Wheeler, and Zdeno Chara will be featured in a recap blog later on this evening.
3rd Period Notes
18:10 - That "Prepare for glory" clip from 300 must not have motivated the Bruins as much as me, as the B's fail to score on the PP.
16:43 - Let 'em fight ref! Lucic and Owen Nolan (I know, I was surprised he's still in the league too) trade a few punches but party pooper referees break it up, send the two off for matching minors (roughing).
13:37 - With Lashoff off for holding the stick, Chara makes a great deflection preventing a wide open Wild player from being in alone on Fernandez, sending it up to St. Pierre who then feeds it to Savard for a little spintastic action, but he gets stonewalled by Backstrom.
12:19 - Koivu off, Bruins will look to tie it up on the PP here. Need one badly.
9:05 - After generating zilch on the powerplay, the clock is now working against the Bruins.
They've cranked it up a notch, as the shots are now 22-21 in favor of Minnesota (previously an 18-9 advantage for the Wild).
6:00 - Neutral zone officially renamed Turnover Central after B's last few minutes of play.
5:10 - Manny with a big save off of a close range opportunity to keep this a one goal game.
3:20 - Wideman makes an incredible diving effort to keep the puck in but Krejci's weak wrist shot is stopped.
1:46 - BOMB from Z goes well wide ... Manny still in net.
0:37 - Empty net, B's with a flurry but can't find twine. Timeout Boston. It's now or never for the Bruins.
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2ND PERIOD SUMMARY - The Bruins, outshot 14-9, are now behind after handing one of the top PP units in the league far too many chances with the man advantage. One could say The B's box binge bit them in the behind. But let it BE known, the Bruins will open the third with 1:51 of PP time...hopefully during which they knot this one up.
2nd Period Notes
19:42 - Yelle off for hooking, Bruins dancing with the devil giving the Wild PP chances. You can see how much of a difference it makes on this go round.
18:00 - Manny makes his 4th save on this particular powerplay, B's kill off the remaining 18 seconds, keep it a nothing-nothing game.
* Ventured over to the dessert table for the first time up in the press box. Out of this world cheesecake. Just had to pass that along.
16:45 - Hnidy sprints off the ice pressing his palm to his bloodied face after taking an apparent stick to the face. Hnidy quickly disappears down the runway and heads for the locker room.
16:30 - Hunwick going to the box. Did the Bruins not hear me? The Wild are hopeless 5-on-5 but damn near unstoppable on the Power Play.
14:45 - Glove save Fernandez. Shots were 6-5 Boston after one, 5 minutes into the 2nd...it's 14-6 in favor of Minnesota. So 9-0 this period...yiiikes.
13:40 - Lucic going off after getting called for holding. That's three minor penalties on the Bruins in 6:20 of hockey. What the crap is going on?!?
12:24 - The Wild just scored, it's 1-0 but I could care less...cause the Bruins just got their first shot on net this period! Whee!
10:00 - Nice tip pass by Axe to send Kessel breaking in.
9:38 - Oh dear god, Kessel and Lashoff both skate by puck, let Wild carry in for opportunity on Manny.
8:40 - Chara gets two shots on Backstrom from five feet out but can't squeak one by. Shots 18-9 in favor of Minnesota right now.
5:30 - Axe with a nice tip off of a shot from the point but, what do you know, save Backstrom.
5:00 - Gah! Savard tips one jusssst wide of the net. Bruins really picking up the pace, nice to see some good movement and sustained pressure from the top line.
2:37 - Wheeler waaaits, waaaits, feeds St. Pierre in front...SAVE Backstrom.
0:35 - Backstrom with a no-look sprawling skate save on Krejci. Jeeeez.
0:17 - Clang! Ryder sends one off the post.
0:09 - Bouchard off for delay of game.
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1ST PERIOD SUMMARY - Well if you're a huge fan of watching the grass grow or paint dry, this might have been the greatest period of hockey your eyes have ever seen. Little excitement from these two highly-defensive minded teams, with just 11 shots combined in the first 20 minutes (Boston 6, Minn 5).
However, the Bruins were roughly 3,647 times sharper than they were in either of the first two periods against Buffalo Saturday. So as dull of a game as it may be so far, I'll take a boring win over an exciting loss any time. Of course, scoring/being ahead are integral parts of winning and we've got a zip-zip game with 40(+) minutes to go.
1st Period Notes
20:00 - Lucic/Yelle/Kobasew get the call first with Chara, now paired with Stuart on D. Fernandez between the pipes.
* Just announced: Sobotka OUT, Nokelainen IN tonight. st. Pierre staying in the lineup is a strong testament to his play of late.
17:30 - Backstrom denies Ryder on a nice flurry.
* Cal Clutterbuck is in the lineup tonight. He was a proud member of my AHL Wacky Prospect Names Dream Team this summer!
14:30 - Krejci line is clicking big time early, forcing Backstrom to make a few nice stops. Shots 4-3 in favor of the B's thus far.
11:15 - Nice job by Hunwick, Wideman transitioning the puck up. Ryder sends one just wide.
* 4th line seeing a lot of action so far. Not a whole lot of ice time for Savard line in the first half of the period.
9:30 - Kobasew getting hauled off for interference.
6:58 - Bruins kill of penalty as Wild fail to get a shot on net during the man advantage. Stuart buries Bouchard just after the penalty had expired.
5:00 - Blake Wheeler - deputy dangler. #26 almost weaves through entire Wild team on his own.
4:46 - St. Pierre with a nice tip off of a Thornton feed.
3:00 - Chara with a big hit on Gillies
2:34 - Fernandez forced to make a stop on a weak shot from Benoit Pouliot in close.
PREGAME NOTES
About 10 minutes until the puck drops here at the TD Banknorth Garden where the Bruins will look to bounce back from Saturday's loss to the Sabres and get back to their winning ways against the Minnesota Wild.
The Wild come into the game 1-0-1 in 2009 after a dismal December during which they went 4-9-1, knocking them down a few rungs on the Western Conference playoff ladder. The Wild defeated the Avs 2-0 on Sunday, preceded by a 3-2 shootout victory over the Wings.
Both Minnesota and Boston have been magnificent in the special teams department throughout the first half. The Wild have the 6th best PP (surprising for a team 27th in goals for per game) and the 2nd best Penalty Killing unit. Meanwhile the Bruins are 3rd in the NHL on the PP and 10th shorthanded, a drastic improvement from early on when they were near the bottom of the barrel.
The Wild are of course without oft-injured star Marian Gaborik, as well as defensemen Kurt Foster and Marc-Andre Bergeron.
Aaron Ward was not visible at the pre-game warmups and will be replaced by Matt Lashoff this evening. Petteri Nokelainen skated during warmups but is not expected to be in the lineup.
This will undoubtedly be a tough test against Jacques Lemaire's disciplined Wild.
"Every year his team is competitive and he gets the most out of his players" said Head Coach Claude Julien of his counterpart this evening.
Starting Lineup for the Minnesota Wild:
LW Andrew Brunette
C Mikko Koivu
RW Pierre-Marc Bouchard
D Brent Burns
D Nick Schultz
G Niklas Backstrom
more to come when action gets under way....
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