It was a great night for some of the new guys as well with Tommy Wingels bagging a goal and assist in his Bruins debut while Rick Nash also scored a goal (his 1st as a Bruin) in his first home game for the Black and Yellow. The two points coupled with Toronto's (39-20-6) overtime loss at Florida (28-25-6) brought Boston back within a point of second-place in the Atlantic Division. The Leafs own 85 points and the B's have 84 points but Boston still has a whopping five games in hand over Toronto so that's something to bank on. The Bruins trail the Lightning (43-17-3) by five points with only two games in hand so that'll be much more of a challenge to ultimately overcome this spring.
The first period was about as good as it gets in a professional hockey game as the two teams combined for five goals including a pair on the power play (both for Carolina) and a tally with 2.9 seconds left in the frame. Brock McGinn gave the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead at 10:01 after he batted in a loose puck on the man advantage, Jeff Skinner and Justin Faulk had the assists on his 11th goal of the season. It only took Rick Nash two games into his Bruins career to find the scoresheet (he hit a post in Buffalo in Sunday's forgettable 4-1 loss) with a memorable goal-his 800th career NHL point-that tied it at one. His new linemates David Krejci and Jake DeBrusk provided the helpers on his 19th goal of the season overall at 11:41. After a turnover, Krejci found Nash wide open and he wasn't going to miss from there with Scott Darling (28 saves, 10-16-7) between the pipes.
The Bruins couldn't stay out of the box as David Pastrnak was nabbed for a high-sticking double-minor (4 minutes) and Carolina made them pay as Teuvo Teravainen went top shelf on Tuukka Rask (29 saves, 25-11-4) for a 2-1 Hurricanes lead. Faulk and Victor Rask had the assists on Teravainen's 16th goal of the season. An ugly defensive breakdown led to Sebastian Aho being all alone so Carolina's top scorer doubled his team's lead at 19:04. Teravainen and Derek Ryan assisted on Aho's 22nd goal of the season. Boston got a big boost from Riley Nash's goal at 19:57 which was the result of great patience by him to wait out Darling for a backhander and a killer forecheck by Wingels that started the whole sequence. Torey Krug somehow received a secondary assist (maybe his dad was tonight's official scorer?) on Riley's 11th goal of the season.
As you would expect, things slowed down considerably in the second period. Wingels tied it up with a snipe of his own at 5:34. DeBrusk and McAvoy assisted on his eighth goal of the season, congrats to the former Worcester Sharks legend. Carolina outshot Boston 15-12 in the second period and each club put up eight shots on goal in the third period. McAvoy's goal was the only shot on goal for either team in overtime. You'd be hard-pressed to find two worse overtime teams in the league, coming into this tilt Boston was 2-6 in the extra session while Carolina was 2-7. Keep in mind that Boston's mini-losing streak was nothing compared to the annual second-half tailspin for the Canes who have now lost six games in a row. If I know the Hurricanes though, they'll probably go on a crazy run right at the end but come up like a point or two short of the second Wild Card spot in the East.
The Bruins needed these two points for many reasons, not the least of which was the fact that mighty Pittsburgh (36-24-4) is up next on Thursday (7, NESN). As expected, the Penguins' midseason slump was just a mirage as they have been one of the hottest teams in the NHL for weeks (7-2-1 in their last 10 games after Tuesday's 3-2 loss to New Jersey). Boston-Pittsburgh is a playoff series that could very well become reality once again this spring and Thursday's matchup promises to provide a great atmosphere at the Garden (kudos to tonight's crowd that was much better than you'd expect for any game involving Carolina). The Penguins are still the defending two-time Stanley Cup champs so until further notice, they remain the team to beat in both the Eastern Conference and around the entire league. Haha please, I beg of you Hockey Gods, no Pittsburgh three-peat. It doesn't have to be the Bruins (although that would be hunky dory), just anyone but Sidney Crosby and the Pens.
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