Former BU star Jack Eichel has missed the past two games with a dreaded upper-body injury but I'm not going to use that as an excuse since the Bruins have faced an absurd amount of injuries to key players throughout the first half of the season. Boston outshot Buffalo 41-32 and it was a relatively easy outing for Tuukka Rask (31 saves, 11-8-2) who won his third start in a row. Boston also improved to 15-5-0 at the Garden this season while Buffalo dropped back to .500 on the road (9-8-3). This closed the book on the season series with the Bruins winners of three games to just one for the much-improved Sabres. Keep that in mind if they should meet this spring because the Bruins no doubt will feel confident in that scenario.
Secondary scoring has been an issue for the B's most of this season but not this evening as both goals came from lines other than their flawless top trio of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak. Nope, just two good-old fashioned even strength goals by a fourth liner (Chris Wagner) and a new second liner (David Backes) who returned from his three-game suspension. Ironically enough, Wagner actually appeared to score a goal 20 seconds into the tilt but it was called no goal due to his linemate Sean Kuraly bumping into Linus Ullmark (39 saves, 9-2-3). Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy challenged it for kicks but of course it was confirmed: no goal.
No worries, Wagner scored at 10:10 of the first period after a turnover by Buffalo in its own defensive zone. Wagner's other linemate Noel Acciari bumped the puck ahead to him and he beat Ullmark for his fifth goal of the season. Boston led 1-0 after the first period and 2-0 two minutes into the second period as Backes sniped a shot by Ullmark as he had no choice but to do that as the Sabres gave him a wide open lane to shoot. Backes' fourth goal of the season was assisted by Rask (his 1st of the season), meaning that Boston's goalies have now combined for four assists this season (Jaroslav Halak has 3, 1 shy of the franchise record for goaltenders).
There were only three penalties in the entire game-Buffalo's PP was 0-for-2 and Boston's was 0-for-1-but there would be no shutout for Rask (he hasn't had one yet this season). One of Buffalo's young standout defensemen Rasmus Ristolainen ensured that his team wouldn't get blanked though as he put a beautiful shot top shelf over Rask's glove at 17:22 of the third period. His fifth goal of the season was unassisted. Marchand and Pastrnak had a couple 2-on-1s that surprisingly didn't result in goals but it hardly mattered. Buffalo used its timeout with 1:17 and pulled Ullmark for an extra skater but they weren't going to tie it up anyway. Rask's best save came against Jeff Skinner flying down the wing.
This win-streak should continue at least for a few more days as Boston is off tomorrow before practicing on Monday and facing the Wild (20-17-3) on Tuesday (7, NESN). Minnesota is in Montreal (22-15-5) on Monday so the B's figure to see a tired opponent while they are well rested. Things should be much harder on Thursday (7, NESN) when they play the Capitals (24-12-4)-a team that currently owns them like no other in the NHL-but we'll worry about that starting on late Tuesday night. Until then, be happy that this club continues to make strides and earn points.
Tweet
No comments:
Post a Comment