Jaroslav Halak got the start once again and nearly notched another shutout as he made 24 saves in his 11th win of the season. After a scoreless first period, the Bruins scored a pair of goals in the second period and an insurance tally in the third before the Ducks avoided the shutout with a goal in garbage time (late in the 3rd). Interestingly enough, three Bruins recorded career milestones in the win: Torey Krug's assist was the 200th of his NHL career, passing Mike O'Connell for the most by a U.S.-born Bruin; David Backes reached 300 NHL assists and David Krejci hit 600 NHL points.
Boston improved to 12-4-0 at home this season while they cooled off Anaheim (8-2-0 before tonight in their last 10 games) who ended a five-game road trip on a low note. It was all about special teams as the Bruins' power play went 2-for-4 and their penalty kill was a perfect 4-for-4. Pasta fittingly enough gave them a 1-0 lead at 8:19 of the second period with a one-timed laser from Krug and Backes. David's team-leading 22nd goal gave him twice as many goals as the next closest Bruin (Marchand with 11). The power play unit was the catalyst again as Krug one-timed in a beautiful pass by Marchand at 18:05 of the second for a 2-0 Black and Gold advantage. Pastrnak had the second assist on Krug's fourth goal of the season.
The B's are now 14-1-0 this season when they have led by 2+ goals so the Ducks might as well have gotten on the plane at that point. It was another one-timer that beat John Gibson (28 saves), this one from Krejci (has he ever had a harder shot?) at 5:21 of the third period. Pastrnak and Marchand assisted on his seventh goal of the season which also extended his point-streak to a whopping eight games (5 goals, 6 assists). Just when I tried to compute how long Halak's shutout streak had lasted in terms of game minutes, Anaheim made that a complete waste of my time. Rookie defenseman Josh Mahura's shot from the point sneaked by Halak, assisted by Carter Rowney at 15:44 which cut it to 3-1.
There are two more games left for the Bruins before they can enjoy a brief Christmas break (Dec. 24-26): they host Nashville (22-12-2) on Saturday afternoon (1, NESN) and they follow that up with a visit to Carolina (14-14-5) on Sunday night (5, NESN). It seems like it would be tough to sit down Halak at this point but regardless, you can bet that Tuukka Rask (8-7-2) will make an appearance at some point this weekend. The Predators are one of the best teams in hockey but they have been scuffling a bit lately (5-4-1 in their last 10 games) after losing 2-1 at Philadelphia (14-15-2) this evening. Any second game of a back-to-back is difficult but the B's have excelled in them this season and the Hurricanes are having another blah campaign so I expect some sort of result there for the Black and Gold as well.
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