It's Tough To Win Hockey Games When You Don't Score Any Goals

I suppose with the law of the averages, the Ottawa Senators were bound to beat the Boston Bruins at some point.

After losing the first four times they played in 2011-12 (including on Saturday in Ottawa), the Senators (34-23-8) came to TD Garden tonight and blanked the Bruins (37-21-3) 1-0 to pull within one point of the Black and Gold for first place in the Northeast Division.

These seem to be two teams headed in opposite directions: the Bruins have lost four of six while the Senators have won six of their last seven. This was the fourth time in the last 10 games that the B's were shut out.

The good news for the B's is that they have four games in hand compared to the Senators. Plus, they can turn the calendar to March before their next game which is a must since they were shut out five times in the year's shortest month. It's no surprise then that Boston still hasn't won consecutive games since mid-January.

The best offensive defenseman in the NHL, Eric Karlsson, provided the game-winner with a power-play strike at 14:44 of the first period. Karlsson's 15th of the season was assisted by Milan Michalek and Jason Spezza. Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas (37 saves; 26-13-0) was outstanding but he had no chance on the goal since he was screened by multiple players from both teams including Daniel Alfredsson who was right in front of him when Karlsson blasted it from the point.

Ottawa goaltender Robin Lehner (32 saves), recently called up from the AHL, recorded his first NHL shutout. He made some nice stops but truth be told, the B's didn't have many quality chances. Boston's power-play continued to be a mess, going 0 for 4.

New Bruins Brian Rolston and Mike Mottau made their debuts but neither had much of an impact. Greg Zanon was in the press box but he will see plenty of ice time on Thursday when Boston hosts New Jersey. The Bruins are 3-0 so far this season against the Devils (14-5 goal differential) but I'll be careful making any predictions since I learned my lesson with what turned out to be a reverse lock this evening.

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