Bruins Overtime is a postgame feature providing extra news, notes and analysis from each game. Boston defeated the Ottawa Senators, 4-3, on Tuesday night in Boston, MA.
Well once again the Bruins managed to find a way to win Tuesday night after being down two goals late into the second period. They pulled off more third period heroics as well, outscoring the Senators 2-0 in the last frame and outshooting them 13-7-- a drastic shift from being outshot 13-5 in the second.
Boston now leads the Northeast Division by six points over second best Ottawa.
SEIDENBERG SEES RED
Arguably the most exciting goal of the game also happened to be the game winning goal for the Bruins, and it came from the hands of defenseman Dennis Seidenberg. With 12:51 left to play in the game, and the score tied 3-3, Seidenberg took a slapper from the center red line and managed to beat Senators goalie Craig Anderson to take the 4-3 lead.
"It took a one bouncer and then, yeah, it hit my stick and went in," Anderson said about the goal. "So, it’s just one of those things where I have to make the save and at the same time it took a crazy bounce."
Defenseman Joe Corvo had the assist on the goal, and while Seidenberg has been known to shoot (and score) on that kind of play, it still got the bench excited for obvious reasons.
"That was pretty good," Corvo said. "I was pretty much the equivalent of the old dump in off the dasher and going in. But, yeah, he had one like that in the first period that, if it was on net, it would have went in. It was exactly the same thing. And that second one on net went in."
When asked if he could make that shot from the red line, Corvo said, " No. No, I can shoot as hard as I want from there and it’s never going in."
LAST MINUTE GOALS
Not only are the Bruins good at coming back in the third period to win games (they have a +38 differential in the third period alone), but they also have a knack for scoring late into periods. Tuesday night, Milan Lucic cut Ottawa's lead in half with 45 seconds left in a rather dismal second period performance for the Black and Gold. His goal was one of only five shots they recorded in the period, but it was the right thing they needed heading into intermission.
"It’s huge," Lucic said. "Obviously it’s a great way to finish off a period, feeling good about yourselves heading into the dressing room. Obviously, you know, still wasn’t that great of a feeling because we felt like we got outworked and lost a lot of battles in the second period, but in the end we still had some confidence knowing that we were just one goal down, instead of two goals down heading into the third. And obviously our power play came up big and we were able to pull one through."
The Bruins power play did go 2-for-4 on Tuesday, including the tying goal from Brad Marchand in the third period.
Boston now has a 10-1-1 record when they score in the final minute of any period this year.
TIMMY TALK BACK TO NORMAL
After a week of whirlwind talk about things not involving hockey, fans and media alike can stop talking about how Tim Thomas' off-the-ice life decisions will affect the team. The crowd gave Thomas a standing ovation at the beginning of the game, and in return, Thomas put up a win in the record column.
"Yeah, I was happy to hear the reception from the fans," Thomas said. "It was just good to hear, you know? And I wanted to get them a win real bad. When we got down there in the second I didn’t know if we’d be able to pull it off, but we found a way again."
Thomas had 30 saves on 33 shots and faced 13 of those shots in the second period, when the Bruins looked out of sorts the entire 20 minutes.
"I think that people just – I didn’t see the ovation; I just saw them cheering him--everybody was probably waiting to see what the reaction was going to be," head coach Claude Julien said. "So it was pretty clear that they still respect him for his hockey skills, and they certainly are not holding anything against him for his view on the rest."
UP NEXT:
The B's should be still relatively rested, and they will have to be ready for the Carolina Hurricanes that come in on Thrusday. The B's have yet to win a game against this team, and this will be the fourth meeting between the two this year.
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