Claude Julien won his 300th game tonight against the Blackhawks. The Bruins earned their first road win of the season. Perhaps even more impressive is the fact that it was of the shootout variety.
Last year the Bruins went 2-6 when the games went into a shootout. It got to the point where head coach Claude Julien said "Well, thank God there are no shootouts in the playoffs, because we aren't the best when it comes to them."
But for a struggling Boston team who had only won one game all year, seeing Tyler Seguin's goal go past Chicago netminder Corey Crawford was something they could all feel good about.
Equally as refreshing was how the Bruins made it to that point. Heading into the third period, the B's were down 2-1, despite having a couple of solid opportunities without results.
Then came the long awaited Nathan Horton goal. Horton entered the game with just four shots to his name and one point, which was an assist on Seguin's goal in Wednesday night's game against Carolina. That changed when, in the third period, defenseman Johnny Boychuk took the puck from behind Chicago's net and found a crashing Horton completely open coming down the slot. Horton took the puck and buried it with just over twelve minutes to go in the third period, tying the game at two goals a piece.
That led to overtime where both teams had chances to end the game, but neither could convert their opportunities. Bruins forward Rich Peverley had a golden chance halfway through the overtime period, where he was all alone on the breakaway, but shot wide after getting Crawford to commit down to the ice.
This win was more than just the average two points to the Bruins, considering they had to come back from an early deficit. Bryan Bickell netted one late in the first period, after a defensive mixup from Andrew Ference allowed him to intercept the puck and put it through the five hole of Tim Thomas.
The start of the second period got the Bruins back into it. Horton entered the penalty box for goaltender interference less than a minute into the new frame, but the Bruins were the first to take advantage. Peverley skated into the zone and connected a "thread-the-needle" pass to Chris Kelly, who, in stride, fired the puck over the blocker of Crawford to tie the game.
But that excitement only lasted a minute--well one minute and eight seconds.
After that, Patrick Kane put the Blackhawks back on top 2-1, beating Thomas far side.
The Bruins improve to 2-3-0, and head back to Boston with a little more energy in their strides to take on Carolina Tuesday night.