Before heading on a four-game road trip, the Boston Bruins would have one last game at home. They would face off against the Washington Capitals hoping for retribution for an OT loss last Tuesday. And they certainly got that revenge and so much more in today’s matinee game. Being St.Patrick’s day weekend, the Bruins practiced in their green jerseys and it would seem that luck was on their side during the game.
In net for the Bruins would be Anton Khubdobin, opposite the Capitals Michal Neuvirth. This would be Khudobins 7th start of the season and he certainly did not disappoint. He would make 32 of 33 saves in the game.
Congrats Horton on your Gordie Howe hatty! (Credit: Flickr/Slidingsideways)
This game to me was what the Bruins have been working to accomplish the past few games. It was a 60-minute effort. I know in the past few games they boys have lost steam in the third but not today.
It all started in the first with the first line. Nathan Horton would get a slapshot in off an assist from Milan Lucic and Zdeno Chara .Not more than three minutes later David Krecji would score thanks to Looch once again. The first line has been pretty MIA in recent games so seeing their presence right away in the first period made me think this would be a good game.
Second period would start with the Bruins on a penalty kill and they would kill it once again because being first in PK’s means it’s hard to score on them. But right after said PK, Washington would strike with an unassisted goal from Marcus Johansson. At 8:02, Andrew Ference would score a LONG overdue first goal of the season. The assists would go to Horty and Krejci. It was good to see Ference get that first goal. At the end of the second the score would be 3-1 Boston.
Now let me take a brief intermission from scoring to talk about ALL the fighting. Brad Marchand would square off against Mike Ribeiro and just 8 seconds later Horton and Matt Hendricks would fight. And yes that would mean Horton got a Gordie Howe hattrick today, basically proving Horty was having a great game! Hendricks would fight again against Adam McQuaid in the third thanks to a little instigation from Shawn Thornton.
Onto the third period! Bruins would get on the power play early on thanks to a slashing call. And all it took was 8 seconds of said power play for the B’s to strike with a PP goal from Rich Peverley. Looch and Krecji would get the assist on that. Like I said later on in that period there was another bout. It was pretty apparent at this point (at least to me) that the Bruins had the clear momentum at this point in the game.
The Bruins would go on to win bringing their record to 19-4-3, while the Caps would fall to 11-15-1.
B’s are back in action tomorrow for another matinee game this time in Pittsburgh against the Penguins.
A Cup A Bruin 