Shawn Thornton made part of history after he was sent to center ice to take his first ever penalty shot. Earlier in the first period the Jets had a penalty shot opportunity where Rask was able to make the save.
In the entire history of the Boston Bruins, that had never happened before. Never once did a Bruins game have a penalty shot both for and against.
And fortunately for Thornton, he made it count.
He dangled his way down to Ondrej Pavelec and put a nifty backhanded shot over his blocker to tie the game back up 2-2. But perhaps what made it more impressive was that the Bruins were shorthanded at the time of the penalty shot. The Jets were afforded a 5-on-3 advantage and Thornton had just been released from the penalty box, while Andrew Ference was still in there. Thornton took the puck and brought it into the zone, and while he got a shot near the net, he was hooked and was awarded the shot.
Minutes later, he almost had another goal, but was knocked out of the way by former Bruins Mark Stuart. Thornton immediately got up and proceeded to grab Stuart by the sweater and throw down the gloves. He just needs the assist to complete the Gordie Howe hat trick.
Speaking of former Bruins, Blake Wheeler gave the Jets the lead at the beginning of the period, deflecting a shot past Rask. Eric Fehr added another one at 11:11 to give the Jets the 3-2 lead.