In any sport, a sign of a good team is when they don't even play that well yet still manage to come away with a victory. Boston (34-22-10) experienced that tonight special phenomenon at Canadian Tire Centre as they beat Ottawa (30-24-11) 3-1. The Senators outshot the Bruins 40-22 (32-14 over the final two periods) but Boston was able to take advantage of two goals from Ryan Spooner (in his hometown no less) and 39 saves by Tuukka Rask (27-16-10).
The win was Boston's third in a row and they improved to 6-1-1 in their last eight games. After a dull and scoreless first period, Spooner got to work early in the second period. He ripped a goal from the slot on the power play at 1:02 that might have gone off the post and in (I thought I heard that sound but I might be losing it). Krug and Hamilton had the assists on Spooner's second goal of the season. Loui Eriksson scored his prettiest goal as a Bruin to make it 2-0 at 15:21. Hamilton got the assist but Eriksson did the hard part on his 17th goal of the season by avoiding a Senator then stickhandling around goaltender Craig Anderson (19 saves) to slot it in the net.
Milan Lucic made an awesome power drive to the net before dishing to Spooner who tapped the puck in for his second goal of the game at 16:53 of the second period. David Pastrnak supplied the other assist. It felt like that goal took all the energy out of the building. Much like the first period, little happened for a while but it finally picked up with one of the flukiest goals that you'll ever see. Patrick Wiercioch's shot went off the back wall right to rookie Matt Puempel who was able to score his first career NHL goal. Jean-Gabrie Pageau had the other assist at 8:30 of the third period.
These two points were so huge for the B's since now they are up seven points on the Senators although Ottawa has played one less game. Philadelphia lost 2-1 to Dallas so they have fallen nine points behind the Bruins so see ya later! I think that any day now that we'll be saying a similar taunt to the Senators.
It is undoubtedly a tough stretch for Boston with a showdown vs. Tampa Bay (42-20-6) on Thursday (7, NESN) at the Garden before a weekend trip to Pittsburgh (38-18-10) on Saturday (1, NESN) and Washington (36-21-10) on Sunday night (7:30, NBCSN). Ottawa had been the hottest team in the NHL (8-1-1 in their last 10 games) but they were still clearly the worst out of the four that Boston faces this week.
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