For the second time in three days, Bruins captain Zdeno Chara claimed victory over Daniel Alfredsson, but tonight's 4-3 win was worth a whole lot more--most importantly, two points.
The Bruins have developed a love for the third period heroics, now increasing their third period differential to a +38 and their overall differential to +71--best in the NHL.
The B's headed into the locker room after a rather dismal second period where they only managed to put five shots Ottawa goaltender Craig Anderson for the whole twenty minutes. Meanwhile, on the other side of the ice, Tim Thomas was being bombarded and faced 13 shots in that same period.
But that all changed in the third, the as has been the case for the majority of their games, the Bruins came back in the third and dominated.
It started when Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson was called for tripping 46 second into the final frame. The Bruins were already 1-for-1 on the power play and Brad Marchand's diligence and determination on that particular opportunity tied the game up, just 2:20 into the third.
However, the back breaker came five minutes later, when Dennis Seidenberg slapped a routine puck towards the net from the center red line. The puck evidently caught Anderson off guard, and the Bruins suddenly found themselves up 4-3 on the flukey goal, with half a period to go.
The B's were able to hold onto the lead and earn two points in the first game of the second half of the season.
Boston now sits just one point behind the first place New York Rangers with 66 points after tonight. In the Division, they have sole ownership of first place--six points ahead of the Senators.
However, this game wasn't all fun for the Bruins, and they had to fight their way back a number of times.Though the B's were the first team to score in the game, there were some obvious holes in their play.
Captain Zdeno Chara netted the first goal of the game with a hard slapper from the blueline. That put Boston up 1-0. However, Colin Greening came back in the same period and put one past the All Star goaltender Tim Thomas evening up the score.
In the second period, the Senators were able to capitalize two more times, courtesy of Kyle Turris and Erik Karlsson, while Milan Lucic was able to net his 18th goal of the season.
The Bruins did not commit a penalty all game, except for the two major fighting penalties they were charged in the first period. Shawn Thornton and Adam McQuaid squared off with Chris Neil and Zenon Konopka respectively.
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