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Wednesday, February 18, 2009

The Boston Bruins and the Amazing Technicolor Power Play


After going winless in its last four games (0-2-2), the Boston Bruins flipped a switch last night and decided to be the dominant team they'd established themselves as in the season's first half.

Boston (40-10-8) rolled over host Carolina (28-25-5), 5-1, scoring three third period goals on Glen Wesley night (which may or may not still be going on).

Using a variety of goal-scorers and solid goaltending-the two keys to the unbelievable season-the B's showed why the last week has been a slight hiccup.

The Hurricanes actually scored first as Matt Cullen (15th) found the back of the net in the first period, from Ray Whitney and Dennis Seidenberg.

Rookie Blake Wheeler started a run of five straight goals for the visitors as he notched a power-play goal (his 17th) later in the first period, assisted by Milan Lucic and Andrew Ference.

Shane Hnidy gave his team the lead for good in the second period as he potted his third of the season from David Krejci.

Special team's play was the key of the night and the theme of the third period for the B's as Krejci (20th, from Patrice Bergeron) scored a short-handed goal with 3:48 left in the game.

Boston would score two more before it was over: Chuck Kobasew added another power-play goal (his 12th) from Zdeno Chara and P.J. Axelsson. Finally, Bergeron put home an empty-net goal (his 5th), short-handed from Stephane Yelle.

The two goals on the power play were a great sign for the B's since the man advantage has been terrible over the last few weeks.

Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas made 31 saves and his record moved up to 25-7-5.

After a flight to Florida last night, the Bruins get a day off in the Sunshine State today. The team is playing golf or going deep sea fishing in its free time. They'll play the red-hot Panthers on Saturday night.

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