MVN - Most Valuable Network

A Sweep and an Elimination, Bruins Win 4-2

Boston, MA- On Thursday night, the Boston Bruins had two things in mind: sweep their home-and-home series with Toronto, and officially eliminate the Maple Leafs from the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Despite finding out earlier in the day that they would be without forward Chuck Kobasew for 4-8 weeks, the Black and Gold showed up to the TD Banknorth Garden and delivered the knockout punch in a 4-2 win. Toronto stayed with the Bruins for most of the first two periods in a tie game, but a three-goal third period proved to be the difference on this night.

Before the game got started, the Bruins and NESN announced that Milan Lucic was the team’s Seventh Player Award Winner. Apparently, the two teams thought they had to make up for time lost during the ceremony, as they hit the ice and played one of the fastest first periods of the season. There was one stretch of over 12 minutes played without a whistle. One goal did get scored during the opening stanza, and it was the home team that took the 1-0 lead. David Krejci took advantage of a Toronto turnover in their offensive zone and headed up the left side of the ice. Once he reached the top of the left circle in the Boston offensive zone, Krejci put on the breaks and looked for options. The best option came a few seconds later when Marco Sturm went into the slot. Krejci hit Sturm with a perfect tape-to-tape pass, and Sturm slammed a shot into the back of the net.

Boston carried the lead into the second period, but 4:47 into the middle frame, the Maple Leafs tied the score. Mats Sundin won a battle with Zdeno Chara behind the Boston net and dug the puck free. After gaining possession, Sundin turned and passed the puck to Nik Antropov on the right side of the crease. Antropov took the pass on his backhand, then continued to move the puck to Jiri Tlusty on his left. With the Bruins playing Antropov to shoot, this left Tlusty with a mostly wide open cage to shoot at. Tlusty put his shot dead center for the tying goal. Toronto recorded 18 shots during the second period, but the game headed to the locker rooms knotted at one a piece.

Early in the third period, the Bruins got their lead back. Deep in his defensive zone, Shane Hnidy started the play off by launching a long pass up for Peter Schaefer in center ice. Not looking to do anything fancy, Schaefer lobbed the puck into the offensive zone. The lob turned out to be a great idea. Phil Kessel flew past Toronto defenseman Staffan Kronwall to pick up the puck. As soon as Kessel touched the puck, Kronwall looked to the linesman for an offsides call. He wouldn’t get the call, and by that time, Kessel was in alone on Vesa Toskala. Boston’s shootout specialist faked to his backhand, then slid a forehand shot past the outstretched glove of Toskala for the go-ahead goal.

At the 10:54 mark of the period, Boston added to the lead. David Krejci received a pass from Aaron Ward at the edge of the left circle. Always very patient, Krejci held onto the puck for a few extra seconds before snapping a pass to Glen Murray along the left side of the goal line. Murray spun around and tried to jam a shot on goal that Toskala stopped. The rebound came right back out to Murray in front of the crease, and the Bruins’ winger took advantage of his second opportunity with a power play goal.

With their playoff hopes fading, and down by two goals, the Maple Leafs gave it all they had in the final ten minutes of the contest. Eventually, that paid off, as Toronto was able to cut the Boston lead in half with a power play goal of their own. After the Bruins cleared the puck out, Jason Blake stormed up the left side of the ice and into the offensive zone. As he approached the circle, Blake turned and dished a pass back to Pavel Kubina at the right point. With his gun locked and loaded, Kubina fired a slap shot underneath Tim Thomas’ right arm for the Maple Leafs’ second goal of the game.

Whatever hope Toronto had quickly got dashed 23 seconds later. Peter Schaefer dug the puck out from along the right wing boards and nudged it over to Vladimir Sobotka inside the right circle. Looking to reward Schaefer for his efforts, Sobotka waited for his linemate to get into the slot before passing back to him. As soon as Schaefer got the puck on his stick, he ripped a wrist shot toward the net. The shot appeared to be going low on its’ own, but thanks to a deflection by Jason Blake, it changed direction and flew over Toskala’s glove.

Boston out shot the Maple Leafs 13-6 in the third period and went on for the 4-2 win to officially bid Toronto farewell. Tim Thomas earned his second straight win over the Maple Leafs with a very strong performance in goal for the Bruins. Thomas turned aside 30 of 32 shots. Vesa Toskala stopped 30 of the 34 shots he faced in the loss.

Out of town, the Bruins were only able to get help from one of the three other contests including teams in the race. Surprisingly, that help came from the struggling Atlanta Thrashers. The Thrashers got a pair of goals in the third period to defeat the Florida Panthers 3-2. Michel Ouellet gave the Tampa Bay Lightning a 3-2 lead over the Washington Capitals in their game, but Alexander Semin tied the game late in the third, and Tomas Fleischmann won it for Washington with an overtime goal. The Buffalo Sabres also came from behind to win. Mike Fisher put the Ottawa Senators ahead 3-2 in the third period, only to see Paul Gaustad tie the game with 1:26 remaining. Buffalo then scored on two of three attempts in a shootout to seal the deal. With Toronto now out of the picture, here’s where the Bruins stand with five games to go: tied with Philadelphia for seventh, two points ahead of Washington, five points ahead of Buffalo, and seven points ahead of Florida. Philadelphia visits New Jersey and Buffalo hosts Montreal on Friday.

The Boston Bruins have Friday night off before playing two straight tilts over the weekend. The first of those games will be on home ice Saturday afternoon as they take on the Ottawa Senators. The Providence Bruins return to the ice on Friday night to open a three game weekend at the Dunkin Donuts Center. Providence has ten games remaining in their regular season, and all ten are against division foes. The opposition for Friday night’s contest are the Springfield Falcons.

Scoring Summary:
1. BOS Sturm (26) (Krejci) 16:47
2. TOR Tlusty (8.) (Antropov, Sundin) 4:47
3. BOS Kessel (18.) (Schaefer, Hnidy) 5:47
3. BOS Murray (17) (Krejci, Ward) (PP) 10:54
3. TOR Kubina (11) (Blake, Toskala) (PP) 15:01
3. BOS Schaefer (9) (Sobotka, Kessel) 15:24

Penalty Summary:
1. TOR Tucker- High Sticking 18:38
2. BOS Thornton- High Sticking 11:41
2. TOR Ponikarovsky- Tripping 16:52
3. TOR White- Hooking 9:53
3. BOS Krejci- Holding 13:47

Goalies:
TOR Vesa Toskala (32-24-6): 34 shots, 30 saves
BOS Tim Thomas (26-18-5): 32 shots, 30 saves

Shots on Goal:
TOR 8-18-6=32
BOS 10-11-13=34

Power Plays:
TOR 1-for-2
BOS 1-for-3

Three Stars of the Game:
1- BOS Phil Kessel
2- BOS David Krejci
3- BOS Peter Schaefer

This entry was posted on Friday, March 28th, 2008 at 12:14 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.