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Welcome to the TD Garden for tonight's game between the Boston Bruins and visiting Pittsburgh Penguins.
Following Thursday's thrilling 2-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning, the B's take to the ice of the TD Garden looking to make it eight in a row and win the season series against the rival Penguins.
Coming into play without Patrice Bergeron, back home attending to personal issues, along with Steve Kampfer, who suffered a concussion in a big hit from Mattias Ritola on Thursday, the Bruins try to take advantage of a Pens team that have only won one of their last seven games.
The Bruins will dress Pittsburgh-native Matt Bartkowski in place of Kampfer and Tyler Seguin gets the nod with Bergeron out.
In net it'll be Tim Thomas against the Penguins' Marc-Andre Fluery.
With the Flyers falling to the Buffalo Sabres earlier this afternoon, the Bruins have a chance to move within one point of the Flyers' Eastern Conference-best point total. Big game tonight here at the Garden!
THE GAME
Coming out of the gate full tilt, the B's nearly capitalized when Michael Ryder walked into the Pittsburgh zone and nearly beat Fleury as the puck dangled mere inches away from crossing the red, while a Mike Rupp fight and eventual victory over Boston's Shawn Thornton proved to be the turning point for the Pens.
Boston would fail to convert on a power-play after a Ben Lovejoy holding call against Tyler Seguin and that would ultimately spell the end of any momentum the Bruins could have established in the first.
Finishing the period with a 14-to-9 shot-advantage against an adjustment-focused sans Bergeron Bruins squad, the teams headed down the tunnel with a 0-0 stalemate with some great saves from both Flower and Thomas highlighting an entertaining first from Boston.
Following a successful kill after a too-many-men ice call to begin the period on bad-footing for the Bruins, David Krejci delivered a great backhander to an attacking Zdeno Chara who wound up and fired home his 11th of the season to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead. Scoring his first goal in 20 games, the celebration of the Slovak's goal was short lived following a a furious rush from the Penguins' second line.
Marching up ice with a furious three-on-one, Jordan Staal dished it back to Tyler Kennedy, faking a shot that pulled Thomas out of position in a NHL11 desperation save-like move, who sent it back to Staal who potted home a game-tying goal before slamming into the crossbar.
The Penguins waste no time in taking a lead as Dustin Jeffrey scores his sixth goal of the season, beating a fallen Thomas through the wickets to give Pitt a 2-1 lead barely a minute after Staal's tally.
"We weren’t moving our feet at all. We were second to the puck if anything," B's bench-boss Claude Julien said. "At the same time you couldn’t establish a physical game because you never got there on time. So they were on the puck and we were doing a lot of watching, I thought in the second period and they just took the game away from us at that point."
Overall, it was a terrible period by the Bruins, who failed to register a shot on goal after Chara's slap-shot seven minutes and 48 seconds into the period. Absolutely abysmal.
Opening up the final frame with a fantastic amount of pressure on Fleury and the reeling Penguins, luck was on the B's side when Mark Letestu's shot rang off the post before Boston's resurgence was on its way.
But when things failed to materialize after what felt like numerous odd-man rushes in Boston's favor, with the net empty, luck find itself on the Bruins side once again when Tomas Kaberle's block of a Matt Cooke empty-net attempt paved the way for a 6-on-5 Boston attack in the Pens zone.
Forming a perfect triangle attack, Nathan Horton found a wide-open Krejci in the slot, who slapped home his ninth of the season with just 32.5 seconds to play, forcing overtime against a Penguins club barely 24 hours removed from an overtime loss to the Devils.
However, after escaping sudden death numerous times, a horrendous giveaway by Dennis Seidenberg to Jeffrey left the Pens winger flying into the Boston end and towards the net with a head of steam before putting it past Thomas to secure the invaluable two points for Pittsburgh.
SEIDENBERG TAKES FALL FOR GIVEAWAY
Addressing the media after the game, there were no excuses from the goat of the game, Bruins blue-liner Dennis Seidenberg.
"I made a very nice pass..to the wrong guy," the German defensemen said. "They battled back and I gave the puck away and got caught flat-footed and they scored. It’s not fun."
Explaining what happened on the play, there were no excuses from the 28-year-old even with the Bruins leaving the ice with at least one point for the eighth straight game.
"For me personally right now, I’m pretty frustrated with that play. But again, we play again on Tuesday, and it’s another game."
TY'S TAKE
Let's not go overboard here. Yes, the Bruins should have beat up on the wounded Penguins in theory, but you have to give credit where credit is due and they simply outworked the Bruins in every area of play in tonight's contest.
"When they have those other guys in, there’s a lot of skill in there and they still work hard," Boston defensemen Johnny Boychuk said about the Penguins play. "But they try to make different plays than they would’ve if they had those guys (Crosby and Malkin) in the lineup that they did tonight."
Flexing their muscles against the Bruins and truly outworking perhaps one of the NHL's best teams when it comes to a blue-collar effort, the Penguins are a seriously gritty team as shown tonight.
However, let's not take anything away from these Bruins, who showed some serious heart and playing 'til the final whistle and ultimately stealing a point when things looked very bleak.
WHAT'S NEXT?
Oh, man..mark the calendars: It's the Bruins and Habs! Meeting for the first time since Feb. 11's legendary game where the Bruins and Canadiens combined for nearly 200 penalty minutes en route to an 8-6 win.
It's Boston's final trip to the Bell Centre in the regular season. But somehow, I get the feeling this won't be the final visit the B's have to Montreal this year.
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