Even when they haven't played their best so far this season, the Bruins are still finding ways to get points and usually wins. After returning home from their longest road trip of the season, Boston (13-2-2) outlasted Ottawa (12-6-3) 2-1 in overtime tonight at TD Garden.
Patrice Bergeron's tip-in was the game-winner as he just deflected Dennis Seidenberg's shot enough to have it go through Senators rookie goaltender Robin Lehner (44 saves) and cross the goal-line.
The victory was Boston's fifth in a row and they snapped Ottawa's five-game win streak in the process as well. To say this game was dull would be the understatement of the year. The B's were credited with 46 shots on goal but honestly they had very few decent chances that my tired brain can remember. Meanwhile, Tuukka Rask (11-1-2) continued to make his case as one of the NHL's best goaltenders as he had a routine 30 saves.
For such an ugly contest, it is only fitting that all three goals were greasy as hockey players like to say. Nathan Horton (7th goal of the season) basically whiffed on a shot but it still beat Lehner at 5:48 in the second period. Dougie Hamilton and Milan Lucic had the assists. The Senators responded in the most impressive fashion possible: they broke Boston's 26 straight penalty kills streak. The immortal Jim O'Brien (not the former BC basketball coach) poked in a rebound at 14:38.
Lucic could have cost his team the game when he was called for closing his hand on the puck (a new rule) with 32 seconds left in regulation. Luckily, Boston killed that off and experienced further good fortune on Bergeron's seeing-eye shot.
The main reason that this game sucked was because Ottawa has lost almost all its best players to injuries so they have to resort to playing a particularly conservative style to survive. A boring game should be the furthest thing from our minds on Saturday afternoon (1 p.m., NESN) as the NHL's highest scoring team-the Tampa Bay Lightning (9-10-1, 3rd in Southeast Division) invade the Garden. Boston won 4-2 in Tampa Bay last Thursday. These teams always play exciting games against each other so Saturday should be no exception in the Lightning's first visit to Boston this season.
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