When the Bruins entered the first intermission of yesterday's game up 3-1 on the Flyers, I fired out a mass text message to all my friends that care about hockey. It said, "the Bruins are unstoppable."
Predictably, this jinxed them as Philadelphia (27-15-9) obviously got wind of my cocky message and recovered to win 4-3 in overtime at the Garden.
It all started out so well for Boston (39-8-7). Marc Savard opened the scoring with his 21st of the season, from Milan Lucic and Mark Stuart. Savard took a shot, gathered the rebound and spun around the net, letting another shot fly that trickled under Flyers goalie Martin Biron's pads.
Simon Gagne tied it up for Philly on the power play, with his 21st of the season (assisted by Mike Knuble and Claude Giroux).
B's rookie Byron Bitz tallied his first NHL goal at 18:59 in the first. Stuart blasted a shot from the point that hit the post and lay on the open goal-mouth. Bitz just had to knock it in. Petteri Nokelainen also had an assist.
After the ensuing face-off, the Bruins scored eight seconds later as Chuck Kobasew (11th) took a pass from Shane Hnidy (and Patrice Bergeron), rushed towards the net and put a low slap shot under Biron.
Give credit to the Flyers though, as they are a good, tough team. They showed some pride in coming back on the road.
Philadelphia scored twice in the second. Former Bruin Glen Metropolit (2nd) made it 3-2 Bruins, with an assist from Arron Asham. Then Scott Hartnell (20th) tied it on a power play with helpers from Jeff Carter and Joffrey Lupul.
In his first game in 30 days, Boston goaltender Manny Fernandez (30 saves) looked a bit rusty but he certainly couldn't be blamed for the fluky game-winner in OT.
Flyers goon Randy Jones (best known for knocking out Bergeron last season) flipped a harmless wrist shot that deflected off B's defenseman Andrew Ference and into the net.
Boston will have a few days to think about the loss and their next game is one of the marquee games of the regular season. On Tuesday, the Western Conference leaders, the San Jose Sharks come to the Garden led by former Bruins star (and MVP) Joe Thornton. Should be a great one.
No comments:
Post a Comment