Bruins Blow By Hurricanes

 

After losing to rival Montreal, the Boston Bruins knew they would have to come out on top against the Carolina Hurricanes. With so few games remaining in the season, the B’s are so close to clinching the playoff’s but to do so they need wins. Chris Kelly would return to the lineup the featured some player swapping. Tyler Seguin would move to the third line with Kelly while Gregory Campbell would center the second line.

Tuukka Rask would get the start opposite the Canes Jusitn Peters.

Two goals tonight for Marchand! (Credit: Flickr/ Slidingsideways)

The first period would kick off with Rich Peverley ending his 10-game goalless streak with a goal at 3:51. Pevs was able to get passed Peters with the wraparound goal with the assists going to Dennis Seidenberg and Andrew Ference. Four minutes later Brad Marchand would notch his 15th goal of the season thanks to a perfect set up from his linemates Campbell and Jaromir Jagr. With that Justin Peters would be pulled after allowing two goals on four shots and  Dan Ellias would step up in net. Marchy wasn’t done for the period  because with 2:40 to go in the period he would score. Jagr and Seidenberg would each get assists on that. This is Marchand’s 8th career two goal game.

Second period would start just like the first did with a Bruins goal! This time it was Andrew Ference with his third of season. Seids and Soupy would get the assists on that review goal. This would be the third assist for Seidenberg and his first three point game as a Bruin. Just so we’re keeping track the Bruins are now up 4-0 against Carolina. Halfway through the second, Jordan Caron would make it a five goal lead with his first goal of the season. Caron’s liney’s Peverley and Shawn Thornton would get the assists for that beauty of a goal. With 21 shots on goal thus far, the B’s have scored five. Carolina has 30 shots on net but none managed to get past Rask. Tonight marks first four-goal and five-goal leads this season for Boston.

Third period wasn’t as exciting. In fact it dragged quite a bit. It dragged just like Eric Staal’s skate when he tried to kick in a goal with 10ish minutes remaining. Pretty sure that just added to the Canes frustrations BUT they would score at 10:03 thanks to a goal from Patrick Dwyer, his seventh of the season. So it wouldn’t be a shutout for Rask. 45 seconds later Drayson Bowman would score making this a 5-2 game. With 3:04 remaining, the Bruins would find the back of the net yet again with Dougie Hamilton setting up Nathan Horton for his 13th of the season. The Bruins now have six goals and this is the most they’ve scored in a game all season. Milan Lucic would also get an assist on that.

Now the Bruins won and that’s great but there are a few things that they need to work on. Rask may have stopped 40-of-42 shots but he shouldn’t have to face that many if the defense was doing their job. And I think it’s best that I don’t speak of our ever terrible power play.

Hey a win is a win and the Bruins have proved that on home ice they do pretty well. The boys are back in action Wednesday in New Jersey to take on the Devils.

 

Bruins Seek First Road Win

Even though it’s only the second road game of the season for the Boston Bruins, and even though the team is undefeated in regulation, the teams eye is on getting that first road win.

To do so the boys will have to get past the Carolina Hurricanes (2-2-0), who are coming off of a road win of their own, beating the Buffalo Sabres 3-1 on Friday. This isn’t going to be easy considering last season Carolina swept Boston, beating the boys all four times they played.

Will the Merlot Line have another big game? (Credit: Flickr/ Slidingsideways)

This is a new season, and this will be the first of three match ups between the two teams. If the Bruins can muster a win or an overtime game, it will be the first time since 1990-91 that they opened the season with a five-game points streak.

Summing up Carolina:
The first two games of the season for the Hurricanes were rocky at best, but since then the team has bounced back with home and home wins against Buffalo. If the Hurricanes win against the B’s, it will be the longest win streak against Boston the team has ever had (5 games)

Who to watch out for:
-Captain Eric Staal‘s hattrick on Thursday helped the team win 6-3 against the Sabres.
-Goaltender Cam Ward is the man behind the 4 wins against Boston last year with 1.25 goals-against average vs. Boston last season.

Bruins Best:
-The “Merlot” line is the reason for the teams 4-2 win over the New York Islanders on Friday. The fourth line consisting of Shawn Thornton, Daniel Paille, and Gregory Campbell with each of the guys scoring at least one goal thus far this season.
Tuukka Rask  is 3-0-1 with a 1.96 GAA and a .925 save percentage to open the season for the team. He will be playing in his 5th straight game because of his consistency.
Dougie Hamilton had his first multi-point game on Friday and was named first star of the game.

Who’s Missing:
The Canes will be without forward Tuomo Ruutu with a hip injury and it is likely he will be missing the entire season. Meanwhile Adam McQuaid did not travel to Raleigh with the team for “personal reasons” and defenseman Aaron Johnson will take his spot on the roster for the night.

Puck drops at 7pm and you can check out the game on NESN!

4th Times a Charm?

Adam McQuaid (Photo: SlidingSideways/ Flickr

Tonight the Bruins took to the ice to prevent a series sweep against the Carolina Hurricanes. Though the teams are on completely opposite ends of the Eastern conference, you wouldn’t know that from the games that have been played. The Hurricanes are in a time to rebuild and what better way to do that than to say you swept the reigning Stanley Cup Champs?

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