Boston came into Ottawa tonight riding high after their overtime win over Columbus last night (hold your laughter) and a four-game winning streak. It turns out that all dreams go to die at the perfectly lame titled Canadian Tire Centre. The Bruins (12-6-1) fell 4-2 to the Senators (8-7-4) after building up a 2-0 lead halfway through the first period but then doing absolutely nothing else but self destructing.
Things looked swell early as Loui Eriksson got another one of his phantom goals at 6:03. He "tipped" Matt Bartkowski's shot from the point for his fourth goal of the season, also assisted by Patrice Bergeron's faceoff win in Ottawa's zone. Brad Marchand played like his old self for a shift, weaving around the Senators' defensemen and wristing the puck by Craig Anderson (30 saves) at 9:50. His third goal of the season was assisted by Bartkowski and Eriksson.
Ottawa got some life by an unlikely source: goon Chris Neil who received a cupcake of a turnover (sorry to mix my desserts) from Torey Krug. By scoring with 50 seconds left in the first period and cutting it to 2-1, he swung the momentum to the home team's side.
Neither club did much in the second period so fast forward to the third where the B's tripped all over themselves (or something worse) while the Senators pounced on Tuukka Rask's (27 saves) worst game of the season.
Jason Spezza kicked off three goals in 8:39 for Ottawa when he finished a beautiful slap pass by Erik Karlsson at 1:32. After tying it at two, Ottawa never looked back as something named Jared Cowen's shot from the point beat Rask (it deflected off Johnny Boychuk's stick and went through Rask's five-hole) at 5:42. Not content for that to be the final gaffe, Bobby Ryan mugged Reilly Smith and took the puck away like nothing. His snap shot went off the inside of the post and in at 10:11, goodnight Bruins!
Boston gets two days off before they play in Carolina on Monday (7, NESN). Yes that's right, the Bruins meet the Hurricanes (8-7-4, 3rd in Metropolitan Division) a few hours before the Patriots and Panthers kick off the second most anticipated NFL game of the weekend. Unlike New England and Carolina, not much is expected of Bruins-Hurricanes since Carolina is a blah team minus Cam Ward and Jeff Skinner. Since it is the beginning of another back-to-back (Tuesday at Rangers), I'll submit my uneducated guess that Chad Johnson gets another start on Monday.
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