Bruins Blank Free-Falling Penguins 3-0, Tuukka Rask Picks Up His 4th Shutout of the Season

There were only two games in the NHL tonight so that meant much of the hockey world got to see two teams on national TV (NBCSN) that are headed in opposite directions. Boston (17-9-4) beat Pittsburgh (15-12-3) 3-0 at TD Garden behind 34 saves by goaltender Tuukka Rask for his fourth shutout of the season (tied for NHL lead) and 30th of his career. Seven different Bruins had points, led by Jimmy Hayes and Ryan Spooner who each put up a goal and an assist. These same teams will be back at it on Friday (7, NESN) at Consol Energy Center.

Boston is 6-1-3 in its last 10 games and this win vaulted them into second-place in the Atlantic Division (tied with Detroit, with 1 game in hand) and fifth-place in the Eastern Conference. Conversely, Pittsburgh is stuck in fifth-place in the Metropolitan Division and 11th-place in the East. The Penguins have suffered an epic bout of injuries, terrible luck and general poor karma that tends to permeate around bad teams. Still, with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel in the fold, it's hard to believe that the Penguins could be tied with the Maple Leafs for the third fewest goals scored (68) so far this season in the league.

Even early on, you had a feeling that it was the Bruins' night when Max Talbot of all people scored his first ever goal for Boston (in his 29th game) at 9:52 of the first period. Adam McQuaid and Hayes assisted on Talbot's goal that was a snipe (haha for him at least) over poor Jeff Zatkoff's (26 saves) glove. Boston doubled its lead at 4:00 of the second period when Spooner's pass bounced in ever so slightly off of Hayes who drove to the net just as Bruins head coach Claude Julien had told him to. New Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan (formerly of the Bruins, BU and Marshfield MA) challenged it to see if Hayes interfered with Zatkoff but he didn't so it held up. Colin Miller had the second assist on Hayes' fifth goal of the season (the former BC star had just 1 assist in his last 14 games).

Pittsburgh dominated the second period, outshooting Boston 18-4, but they had nothing to show for it. That had to be extremely frustrating for the Penguins and each club seemed to basically go through the motions in the third period. Spooner clinched it with the ultra-rare power play/empty-net combo platter goal at 17:17. Patrice Bergeron (6-game point streak) and Loui Eriksson assisted on Spooner's eighth goal of the season.

Adam McQuaid escaped serious injury in the second after he took a wayward puck to his face. He skated off quickly with his hand over his mouth and headed straight to the dressing room for some repairs. There were some chippy plays on both sides but only four penalties were called on Pittsburgh and three on Boston with no fights (maybe since Zac Rinaldo went on IR yesterday). Expect that to change on Friday, especially if Pittsburgh is losing again and in desperate need of a spark.

Rask has been on fire lately, he is 7-0-2 in his last nine games with a 1.36 goals against average, .955 save percentage and three shutouts. He's playing his best hockey of the season along with most of his teammates. It only took nearly 2.5 months but Boston is finally .500 at home (7-7-2) this season, haha progress! They remain one of the best road teams (10-2-2) in the NHL while Pittsburgh is 8-5-2 at home. It's hard to say with a straight face that any game before Christmas is a must-win in the NHL but if the Penguins have any pride, Friday is basically that.

Tweet

The Bruins Used Four Special Teams (2 SH & 2 PP) Goals to Beat the Red Wings 5-3

To beat a quality team like Detroit (36-17-11), especially in the second leg of a back-to-back, Boston (33-22-10) needed its vaunted depth to show up in a big way. Luckily for the B's it did as they beat the Red Wings 5-3 at TD Garden for their second win in as many afternoons (they rallied for a 3-2 overtime win vs. Flyers yesterday). A four-point weekend against two Eastern Conference foes should give them plenty of confidence with 17 games left in the regular season.

Perhaps most importantly, Niklas Svedberg (36 saves) started and he was pretty decent in picking up his first regulation and non-shutout win of the season. 10 Bruins had points and their special teams were money with two power-play goals and two shorthanded goals against the No. 1 power-play unit in the NHL. Daniel Paille was scratched for two games a few weeks ago but he has responded like the professional that he is with four goals in his last six games, including two today vs. Detroit.

With Red Wings backup goaltender Jonas Gustavsson also getting the start, you had a feeling that it would be far from a 1-0 game. Brad Marchand continued his excellent weekend with his third goal in a row going back to yesterday's contest vs. Philadelphia. To change it up, this one was a shorthanded tally just 4:15 into the first period. Stephen Weiss turned the puck over in Boston's zone, Marchand went in on a breakaway and deked Gustavsson out of his hockey pants. His team-leading 22nd goal of the season was unassisted. Marchand has a four-game point-streak (5 goals, 1 assist) along with 10 points (7 goals, 3 assists) in the last 10 games.

University of Maine product Gustav Nyquist tied it at 7:01 with a wrist shot. His 22nd goal of the season was assisted by Kyle Quincey. Adam McQuaid had a game-high five blocks but he missed that out on that one and screened his own goalie in the process. No worries though, Boston answered with a power-play goal by David Pastrnak less than two minutes later for a 2-1 lead. His snipe from the left face-off circle was a bit of skill that you rarely if ever see from these B's. Pastrnak's eighth goal of the season was assisted by Milan Lucic and Reilly Smith.

Paille's pair of goals in the second period really opened things up for the home team. First, he had a breakaway and nothing went wrong for once. His fourth goal of the season was unassisted at 11:44 and it represented the first time in nearly two years (April 10, 2013 at NJ) that Boston scored two shorthanded goals in the same game. The Bruins are now tied with Toronto, Tampa Bay and Winnipeg for the third-most shorthanded goals in the league (7). After that highlight, Paille one-timed a pass from Max Talbot (game-high 7 hits) from in close for another goal at 18:39. Gregory Campbell had the second assist on Paille's seventh career two-goal game (1st since Dec. 14, 2011).

Jimmy Howard replaced Gustavsson (4 goals allowed, 19 saves) to start the third period and the blowout got interesting for a few seconds as Luke Glendening's routine shot found its way past Svedberg at 1:24. His ninth goal of the season was assisted by the magical Pavel Datsyuk. Boston's second power-play goal, this time from Loui Eriksson at 4:03 gave them back their three-goal cushion (5-2). Patrice Bergeron and Ryan Spooner (5-game point-streak) assisted on Eriksson's 16th goal of the season.

To conclude the special teams explosion, Detroit added their only power play goal of the affair. Newly acquired defenseman Marek Zidlicky scored his second goal in three games as a Red Wing. His shot from the point went top shelf on Svedberg; it was his sixth goal of the season with assists to Tomas Tatar and Datsyuk.

This good stretch (5-1-1 in their last 7 games) couldn't come at a better time for the Bruins with three of their next four games on the road: they are at Ottawa (29-23-11) on Tuesday (7:30, NESN) before hosting Tampa Bay (41-20-6) on Thursday (7, NESN). Then they have a back-to-back next weekend at Pittsburgh (38-18-9) on Saturday (1, NESN) followed by a game in Washington (36-21-10) the following night (7:30, NBCSN). With the Senators hosting the Flames tonight, Boston is currently seven points ahead of Ottawa which means that a win there could really bury them from the playoff discussion.

Tweet

Marchand Comes Through Twice in the Clutch for Biggest B's Win of the Season: 3-2 vs. Flyers in OT

The Flyers (28-25-13) have to be left wondering what they have to do to beat the Bruins (32-22-10) this season after Boston stunned them in a 3-2 overtime victory this afternoon at TD Garden. The problem is that unless they might in the playoffs this spring (which is unlikely to say the least), they'll have to wait until next season to snap a six-game losing streak vs. the Bruins.

Philly picked up a point at least but now they trail Boston by five points and even worse, the B's have two games in hand over them. The Flyers really needed those two points if they want to steal that eighth-seed in the Eastern Conference. The Bruins improved to 8-3 in overtime this season while the Flyers fell to 5-6 in the extra session.

After losing the first two meetings of the season, Philly looked poised to get two huge points on the road when something named Chris VandeVelde tipped in Nick Schultz's shot from the point at 15:30 of the third period. His ninth goal of the season was also assisted by Brayden Schenn. That's when Brad Marchand went to work: he tied it with a power-play goal (6-on-4 with Rask pulled) with 15 seconds left in regulation then won it with a backhander off Michael Del Zotto's skate with 1:08 left in OT.

Those were his 20th and 21st goals of the season, he's scored 20+ goals in four of his five years in the NHL (the only time that he didn't was during the 2012-13 lockout shortened season). Dougie Hamilton and Loui Eriksson assisted on Marchand's tying tip-in goal which almost brought down the Garden. Max Talbot picked up his first point as a Bruin and Ryan Spooner had the second assist on Marchand's game-winner.

For the seventh straight game, Boston scored the first goal. Zdeno Chara had a power-play tally at 7:07 of the first period from Hamilton and Patrice Bergeron. I thought initially that Bergeron might have gotten a piece of it but it stood for Chara's sixth goal of the season. Philly answered with a power-play strike of their own: Jakub Voracek whipped a shot from the slot off the post and in at 9:43 of the second period. His 20th goal of the season was assisted by Mark Streit and Claude Giroux.

Steve Mason (34 saves) really didn't deserve to lose because he was great basically all game and Tuukka Rask (29 saves) played well aside from VandeVelde's goal that trickled in. With Detroit (36-16-11) on tap tomorrow afternoon (12:30, NBC) back at the Garden, I'd be shocked if Bruins head coach Claude Julien started Niklas Svedberg over Rask. The Red Wings are currently in fifth-place in the East and nine points ahead of Boston. It is far from an ideal situation but if Rask is up for it, you have to keep playing him given the Bruins' shaky position in the standings.

Tweet