In the second meeting between the Boston Bruins and Buffalo Sabres, the Bruins looked for redemption after a 7-4 beating in Boston. This time the teams would meet in Buffalo and it would be Anton Khudobin against Ryan Miller in net. After 60 minutes of play, the B’s would get their revenge in a 3-1 win. This win gave the Bruins an 8-1-1 record, making it their best 10-game start in team history.
Bergeron would get the game winner tonight! (Credit: Flickr/ Slidingsideways)
Shawn Thornton, Daniel Paille, and Brad Marchand would all return to the Boston lineup after being out the past few games with injuries. Lane MacDermind, Aaron Johnson, and Jamie Tardif would be the healthy scratches for the B’s.
I’ll break down the game by period!
First Period:
Patrick Kaleta is an instigator. I said it and I mean it. First sir gets in a scuffle with Paille, then decides to forecheck Dennis Seidenberg. Gregory Campbell decided to instigate himself and fought Kaleta. This would lead to Buffalo’s first power play of the night with 8:59 left in the first. Zdeno Chara would get a shot on net shorthanded by at this point Miller was in his zone. I don’t like to give that man credit…like ever, but it was apparent the B’s weren’t going to get any easy goals.
Both teams had some pretty good opportunities to score but both goalies were standing on their heads quite literally. I was very impressed with the B’s puck handling in the final two minutes of the period.
The B’s would start the second with a power play thanks to a penalty courtesy of Cody Hodgson.
Second Period:
Like I said this would start on a PP for the B’s and soon after this 5-on-4 would become a 5-on-3 as Alexander Sulzer would go off for cross checking. This would not register any goals but it was another chance to watch the improved B’s power play.
On the bright side, 7:10 into the second Marchand would score giving the B’s a 1-0 lead. That goal would give Marchy the goal lead for the team, making it his sixth of the season. Right after, #63 would get a penalty called faceoff violation. This rule is new and Marchand was giving two minutes for pushing the puck with his hand off of the faceoff.
Buffalo wouldn’t capitalize on that PP but they would score at 18:01. Tyler Ennis would get credit for the goal. And with that the 2nd period would come to an end.
Third Period:
At 7:24, the Bruins would get another power play opportunity and this time Patrice Bergeron would capitalize on it giving the B’s a 2-1 lead. This is the B’s 4th PP goal of the season and interestingly enough all of those PP goals have come on the road.
That would be the game winner for the B’s though Milan Lucic would add an empty netter to the score with :48 seconds remaining in the game.
Khodobin made 20 saves and picked up his 2nd win of the season. He is proving to be a great back up goalie for the B’s, and with the shortened season having so few breaks in between games this is beneficial.
The Bruins will return home to take on the New York Rangers Wednesday!
A Cup A Bruin 