BOSTON - Brad Marchand played the hero role, scoring the go-ahead goal on a wrister in front of the net, assisted by Patrice Bergeron and Rich Peverley, at the 8:17 mark as the Boston Bruins rallied past the New York Islanders, 6-3, in the preseason home opener on Friday night at TD Garden.
Boston (1-1) trailed 3-2 after two periods, but rattled off four third-period goals to secure the victory - their first of the 2011 preseason. New York fell to 0-1 after losing its opener.
Peverley (one goal, three assists) and Bergeron (one goal, two assists) were the stars of the night for the Bruins, combining for seven points.
Dylan Reese, who had two goals in the game, scored his first goal on a slapshot near the blue line at 1:07, assisted by Jeremy Colliton, to put the Islanders up, 1-0. Reese scored again 18:18 into the period (assisted by Justin DiBenedetto), this time on an angled slapshot just near the red line, just to the left of Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas.
Boston righted the ship with two second-period goals - a second-chance score on a power play by David Krejci at 8:17, assisted by Milan Lucic and Peverley, putting the B's a 1-for-4 on the man advantage for the day. Bergeron scored the B's second goal at 9:21, assisted by Brad Marchand and Zdeno Chara, to knot the score at 2-2 midway through the middle period.
Trevor Frischmon took the lead back for the Islanders, scoring with 2:01 left in the second period on assists fromTomas Marcinko and Jay Pandolfo.
Dennis Seidenberg drew first blood in the third period on a wrister in front of the net, assisted by Bergeron and Peverley Steve Kampfer, tying the game at 3-3 with 15:49 to go in the game.
Marchand's goal sealed the deal midway through the final period, and Bergeron and Peverley each picked up their third point of the night on the go-ahead tally.
Johnny Boychuk and Peverley added the icing on the cake, with Boychuk scoring the B's fifth goal at 15:14 (assisted by Matt Bartkowski and Lucic) and Peverley added the sixth goal at the 46 seconds later, unassisted, to give Boston a commanding three goal advantage, which was enough to bring home the win.
Thomas played the entire game between the pipes and recorded 13 saves on 16 shots for a .812 save percentage in 59:56. Rick DiPietro started in net for the Islanders and had 20 saves on 22 shots for a .909 save percentage in 40 minutes. Anders Nilsson had 10 saves in 20 minutes for New York.
The Bruins registered 36 shots in the contest while the Islanders posted 16 shots. Boston had three penalties for nine penalty minutes while New York had nine penalties for 14 minutes.
Boston heads north of the border to face the archrival Montreal Canadiens in their next two preseason games, with the first coming on Sunday in Nova Scotia and the second at the Bell Centre - home of the Canadiens - on Monday evening.
NOTES: Only five players that played against the Ottawa Senators dressed tonight for the Bruins, and they were Patrice Bergeron, Matt Bartkowski, Lane MacDermid, Benoit Pouliot and Jamie Arniel...The Bruins have a pair of birthday's over the weekend, with forward Zach Hamill turning 23 on Friday and Steven Kamper turning 23 on Saturday.
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