After the first period of play, the Bruins and Canucks remained gridlocked, each putting up a goal, and the shots leaned toward Vancouver, 10-8.
But that was hardly the story of the start of the game.
At 14:06 Canucks forward Ryan Kesler scored with a cross ice pass to make it 1-0, but not until after the Bruins and Canucks had thier way with each other early on. Penalties were plentiful less than four minutes into the game when a scrum started in front of the Canucks bench. Every player on the ice got involved, and even Milan Lucic came off the bench to start in the fray, though that slapped him with a game misconduct.
That, plus another couple of punches back and forth in the latter portion of the period resulted in 52 minutes of penalties.
One of those came with 14:58 left to play, and Shawn Thornton tried to drop the gloves with Dale Weise, who seemed to back off after Thornton dropped his gloves. However, both ended up going to the box for unsportsmanlike conduct.
With 5:03 left to play, Brad Marchand erased Kesler's goal, putting in a backhanded shot through the five hole of Vancouver goalie Cory Schneider.
The Bruins enter the second period shorthanded after Benoit Pouliot entered the penalty box for high sticking with 1:15 left.