Bergeron's 1st career hat trick lifts Boston Bruins over hapless Ottawa Senators

If you're keeping score at home, the Boston Bruins have now scored 10 straight goals over the Pittsburgh Penguins and Ottawa Senators after the Bs embarrassed the Senators 6-0 last night at the TD Garden.

Patrice Bergeron scored his first career hat trick and Tim Thomas made 31 saves for his NHL-leading sixth shutout of the season.

With a big snowstorm in the forecast, the Bruins (23-12-7) treated their fans to one of their best performances this season.

Bergeron began the scoring 3:33 into the contest with an unassisted tally. Blake Wheeler made it 2-0 later in the first period thanks to a nice feed from Tyler Seguin (David Krejci also assisted).

The second period had a little bit of everything for the Black and Gold. They pumped in three more goals and got into two fights with the Senators (16-21-6).

Bergeron scored another goal unassisted, Brad Marchand was credited with a goal that went off an Ottawa skate (from Dennis Seidenberg) and Seguin scored on a sweet shot from Krejci and Zdeno Chara.

It was a funny scene when fans threw hats on the ice for Marchand's goal since it looked at first glance like it might have been Bergeron's third. Luckily, for the poor Hans Molemans out there that lost their hat on a Marchand goal, Bergeron came through with one more in the third period.

Nathan Horton fought Jesse Winchester and Shawn Thornton squared off with Matt Carkner.

Bergeron got the third at 5:04 from Marchand. All that was left was for Carkner to bully Daniel Paille. Credit to Paille as he got into the first fight of his NHL career.

The Bruins will need to bring this emotion to tomorrow night's game as they host the Philadelphia Flyers. A win against the Flyers would go a long way to getting on a nice win streak.

The one where Oregon (Aaron Brooks) actually beats Auburn (Marquis Daniels)

After the initial solid play after Kevin Garnett got hurt a few weeks ago, the Boston Celtics are clearly missing their leader.

They lost their second straight game last night, 108-102 at the TD Garden to the Houston Rockets (who were missing Yao Ming and Kevin Martin).

Houston (17-21) shot lights out (52.7%) for the entire game, as evidenced by having seven players score in double figures: Aaron Brooks (24 including 5 of 8 on 3-pointers), Kyle Lowry (17), Chase Budinger (13), Luis Scola (12), Jordan Hill (12), Shane Battier (10) and Patrick Patterson (10).

It's easy to make excuses and say the Rockets hit ridiculous shots (which they did) but the Celts (28-9) also didn't play defense at all so therefore they didn't deserve to beat a team they should normally have no trouble smoking.

Marquis Daniels (19 points) and Ray Allen (19 points) seemed to be the only Celtics to really put up much of a fight. Paul Pierce had 16 points, Glen Davis scored 12 points while Rajon Rondo added nine points and 12 assists but none of them were really on.

The Rockets led 27-22 after one quarter and 50-49 at halftime. When they took the third (30-25), you had the feeling the Cs were in trouble since Houston was on fire. The fourth was even (28-28) but that was enough for the visitors since Boston could never get a stop.

The Celts shot 50.7% but the Rockets had twice as many 3-pointers (10-5) and grabbed seven more rebounds (38-31). Boston had eight more steals (13-5) and 26 more points in the paint (48-22) but it wasn't enough against a jump-shooting team that couldn't miss.

Boston had practice today and then they'll try to get it right tomorrow night when they host the Sacramento Kings, one of the NBA's worst teams.

The Boston Bruins will gladly talk you off the ledge, for one night at least

Oh the Boston Bruins, they sure know how to toy with fans' emotions huh?

After yet another brutal loss on Saturday to the Canadiens, they looked poised to go down in Pittsburgh last night at the CONSOL Energy Center.

The Bs (22-12-7) were down 2-0 with less than four minutes remaining so in other words, it was over. Except then it wasn't. Boston scored four goals over the final 3:23 to take a shocking 4-2 win over the Penguins (26-14-4), who skated without icon Sidney Crosby.

Almost as surprising was the fact that the dormant Bruins power play woke up for two of the four goals. Zdeno Chara got the party started at 16:37 with a long, screened shot from the point on the power play. Dennis Seidenberg and Gregory Campbell assisted.

Just 12 seconds later, Brad Marchand took a feed from Patrice Bergeron and tied it up. Campbell also assisted on that one.

Mark Recchi scored the game-winner with 50 seconds left, again on a power play. Michael Ryder and Seidenberg assisted but it was Recchi's hard work in front of the net (something completely predictable) that earned him the rebound goal.

Campbell iced it with an empty-netter with eight seconds remaining. Blake Wheeler and Bergeron had those assists.

Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask (23 saves) earned the win while Penguins goaltender Marc Andre-Fleury (28 saves) played well but for the second time this season, his team coughed up a two-goal lead in the third period to Boston (Brent Johnson was in net last time).

After a scoreless first period, Pittsburgh scored a pair of goals in the second. Mike Rupp scored on a bad-angle backhander (from Deryk Engelland) and Kris Letang scored a power-play goal on a slap shot from the point (from Evgeni Malkin and Paul Martin).

Tonight, Boston kicks off a four-game homestand by hosting the Ottawa Senators, the bottom-feeders in the Northeast Division. This is two points they simply need to have, no excuses.

D Rose owns Chi-Town, you already know

Once again, I didn't see much of the Boston Celtics' game last night in Chicago but like the Bruins I saw all I needed to in the few chosen moments I switched over during the Jets-Colts game. There was no need to watch the dud game on DVR late at night afterwards.

Derrick Rose had a game-high 36 points while Chicago beat the Celts 90-79 at the United Center.

The Bulls' (24-12) hometown boy got to the line for 19 free throws and Boston (28-8) shot bricks (37.8%) all night long to ensure a nice night for Chicago head coach Tom Thibodeau and Brian Scalabrine.

Carlos Boozer added 22 points and 10 rebounds while Ronnie Brewer had 10 points and Luol Deng notched nine points, nine rebounds and five assists.

Paul Pierce led the Cs with 21 points, Ray Allen had 19 points, Rajon Rondo notched 13 points, eight assists, five rebounds and five steals. Glen Davis added 11 points.

Chicago led 22-21 after one quarter and 46-42 at halftime. The Celts outscored Chicago 22-21 in the third quarter but the Bulls took care of business in the fourth (23-15).

The Bulls shot 49.2%, the Celtics hit two more 3-pointers (5-3), Chicago hit seven more free throws (25-18; they attempted 13 more: 35-22) and pulled down a ridiculous 21 more rebounds (48-27). Chicago had four more assists (16-12) but Boston made seven more steals (12-5). The Bulls had four more blocks (9-5) and the Celts were only hanging around because Chicago had 13 more turnovers (21-8).

Boston hosts the Houston Rockets tomorrow night at the TD Garden, a team that without the oft-injured Yao Ming is lacking direction.

When it comes to soul-crushing losses, the Boston Bruins have the market cornered

I am thankful that I missed most of the Boston Bruins' epic loss to the Montreal Canadiens last night. I had it DVR'd but after I saw the ending, I was straight with seeing any more of the latest turd burger

Since it was the first day of the NFL playoffs, I was watching those much more important games but still managed to catch almost all of the soul-crushing moments of Boston's 3-2 overtime loss to Montreal (23-16-3) at the Bell Centre.

Patrice Bergeron had given the Bs (21-12-7) a 2-0 lead and it appeared like the Northeastern Conference showdown would end nicely for the visitors.

With 2:22 left in the third period, Scott Gomez scored on a fluky power play goal when he just threw the puck at the net and somehow Tim Thomas (39 saves) didn't see it until it was too late.

Zdeno Chara had a good chance to end it with a long shot on Montreal's empty net but it went thru the crease and just wide. I would have said what I was thinking out loud (watch the Canadiens tie this up) but you can't mess with things like that in matters of the Boston Bruins. They are cursed enough as it is.

Wouldn't you know with 48 seconds left, Brian Gionta tied it up from James Wisniewski and Max Pacioretty. It was reviewed since it appeared maybe he kicked it in but no dice, they made the right call that it wasn't intentional.

At that point, you had seen this movie before and it ended like it always does: with Pacioretty scoring 3:43 into overtime. Boston received a point but it's hard to picture a much more pathetic collapse (in the regular season) in a big spot.

After a scoreless first period, Bergeron scored his goals 8:09 apart. Blake Wheeler and Brad Marchand assisted on the first one with Mark Recchi and Chara with the helpers on the second.

Montreal goaltender Carey Price (27 saves) did enough to get the win in front of his bobo home crowd.

The road doesn't get any easier this week as the Bruins travel to Pittsburgh to face the Penguins. The good news for them is that Sidney Crosby is out with a concussion.

Any Big East fan could have told you, Luke Harangody is a beast

Earlier in the week, I made a mistake when I referred to Celtics guard Von Wafer as the last guy on the bench. I neglected to mention rookie guard Avery Bradley and rookie forward Luke Harangody, two college players that came out too early (Bradley) or seem to be undersized and without a position in the NBA (Harangody).

With Kevin Garnett out the last five games, Harangody has been playing more minutes and last night was his first real solid performance as he put up 17 points and 11 rebounds (in a career-high 27 minutes) that fueled a 122-102 win over the Toronto Raptors at the TD Garden.

Anyone that pays attention to college hoops could tell you that both, particularly Harangody can ball. You don't play four years in the Big East at Notre Dame and dominate like he did when you're a stiff.

Clearly, it'll be hard for him to find minutes on a championship contender like this one but he seems to have the ingredients to be a solid role player in the Ryan Gomes, Leon Powe mode.

Since the Raptors (12-24) don't play any semblance of defense, it should be no surprise that the Celtics (28-7) usually own them, save for one weird choke job in Toronto earlier this season.

Paul Pierce led the Cs with 20 points, Ray Allen scored 17, Glen Davis had 14 points and Shaquille O'Neal added 12 points. Nate Robinson regained his scoring touch, putting up 15 points off the bench.

Rajon Rondo had nine points and seven assists in 26 minutes (with six turnovers) as Doc Rivers tried to limit the starters minutes in the first night of a back to back stretch and three games in four nights.

DeMar Derozan paced Toronto with 20 points, Andrea Bargnani and Linas Kleiza both added 17 points, Jose Calderon had 11 points and nine assists while Amir Johnson scored 10. Off the bench, Leandro Barbosa scored 15.

The Raptors must possess as many foreigners (four played last night) as almost any other team, fitting since they're in Toronto which is a very diverse city, especially for Canada. It also makes sense that they don't have any interest in stopping anybody on the defensive end.

Boston was up 34-22 after one quarter and 67-45 at halftime (their most first half points this season). The Raptors cut into the deficit a bit in the third quarter (32-27) but it didn't matter as the Celts closed it out (28-25) and sent everyone home happy.

It was the second straight outstanding shooting display by Boston (57.5%) and Toronto wasn't shabby either (50.6%). The Celts made five more 3-pointers (11-6), three more free throws (19-16) and had 12 more rebounds (43-31). Boston had six more assists (31-25), three off their season-high while Toronto had four more steals (8-4) and five more blocks (7-2).

Thanks to Rondo's carelessness, the Cs had five more turnovers (16-11) and half the amount of fastbreak points that the Raptors had (14-7). The Cs did pound it down low with 10 more points in the paint (54-44).

Boston is in Chicago to face the Bulls tonight. Derrick Rose seems to always play well against the Celtics and this has developed into one of the Cs bigger rivalries over the past few seasons.

Bruins lose a snoozefest (zzzzzzzzzzzzz) to the somehow unbeatable Minnesota Wild

With the exceptionally boring style that the Minnesota Wild prefer to play, I almost don't blame the Boston Bruins for playing terribly last night. For some unknown reason, the Wild are 9-2 all-time against the Bs including a 6-0 mark in Boston. Weird.

Three fatal Bruins (21-12-6) mistakes led to each Wild (20-15-5) goal as Minnesota won 3-1 at the TD Garden.

It wasted yet another fine effort by Tuukka Rask (31 saves), who lost to Jose Theodore (35 saves). Rask turned in one of the best saves you'll see all season in the NHL, robbing Martin Havlat of what should have been an easy tap in.

After a scoreless first period, the Wild took advantage of a bogus hooking call on Shawn Thornton early in the second period. Minnesota defenseman Brent Burns flopped like only the Montreal Canadiens can and he surprisingly got the call. Four seconds later, Havlat scored from Patrick O'Sullivan.

Bruins rookie defenseman Steve Kampfer (who has played wonderfully from day one since he got called up) tied it up following a steal in Minnesota's end by Patrice Bergeron. Tyler Seguin also assisted on Boston's lone goal.

By far the biggest mistake by the Bs led to the game-winner for the anonymous Wild as Marc Savard failed to clear the puck after a long shift in his own end and hit it right to wannabe porn star name Cal Clutterbuck. Rask had no time to react and Minnesota had a 2-1 lead.

Boston pressed for the tying goal but Theodore stood tall while Minnesota also had some more luck as Mark Recchi's stick shattered after Rask had been pulled for the extra skater.

Mikko Koivu put it away with an empty-net goal following Recchi's problem with his stick.

There's no time to feel sorry for themselves though as Boston goes to Montreal tomorrow night for a showdown with first-place in the Northeast Division on the line. Expect Tim Thomas to be back in between the pipes after he's sat out the last three contests.