5 foot 11, 203 pounds, and with a respectable 6 and 2 record going into last night, Anton Khudobin's rookie campaign had been close to perfect. As said before, through his first 8 starts, the former 7th round Minnesota draft pick had won 75 percent of his games, snagging 4 penalty minutes, 239 saves and a near elite 2.14 goals against average.
Despite all this when number 35 in black took the ice last night he just couldn't find the utilitarian magic that had been so vital to his success this year. Yet even after getting pulled early in the 3rd period, when the horn sounded last night, you would be crazy to blame last nights loss all on the 26 year old rookie defending Boston's net.
"We had a chance to win this game, we had some chances that we missed, an open net first period, hit a couple of posts here and there." Bruins coach Claude Julien said following the conclusion of the game, and really, he had a point. After falling behind on the result of a bad turnover by recent call up Matt Bartowski, just over 5 minutes into the 1st frame, the B's fought back blasting shot after shot at the Toronto net, and locking down defensively therefore looking like the team they were capable of being.
Fact is when the 1st period closed out and the scoreboard represented a mere 1 goal deficit, things didn't look that bad and really no one was playing considerably bad; that is until Khudobin well did. With just 3 minutes elapsed in the second period, a loose puck giveaway right at the Boston blue line led to a slow wrister that handcuffed Khudobin and sent the puck spinning into the net simultaneously extending the Toronto lead to 2 goals. Much like the 1st period, the 2nd was no kinder as when the frame concluded, the B's remained down by 2. Yet even though they opened the final frame by allowing a spectacular Frazer McLaren wraparound goal and thus forcing the first goal tending change of this 2013 Bruins season something finally clicked and as the period wound down the Boys in Black had finally given those watching throughout New England one last bout of hope.
With 17 minutes and 35 seconds left on the clock, Bruins center Patrice Bergeron won out a puck battle along the boards earning the right to spray the quick pass to left wing Brad Marchand. Surveying the ice before him, Marchand caught the eyes of Dennis Sidenberg before moving the puck off the goal line and extending the pass to his pinching defender. 17:30 on the clock now and with Sidenberg at the dot, he stepped into the targeted snapshot, blasting in his second goal in as many games.
Call it what you will but when Tuukka Rask came in last night, Boston seemed to wake up dominating the Leafs and allowing just 2 shots in Rask's near 17 minutes of ice time. Yet while defense can keep you in games, at that point in time, it was offence that Boston needed, and while it took a while the Bruins did in fact manage to pull within 1 goal. The only problem was it was to little to late.
With 1:16 to go in the game, and the Boston net empty, once again, the hometown defense turned offence payed off as this time around, a simple saucer pass straight out to the blue line allowed for long time veteran Andrew Ference to tee up and crack Boston's 2nd goal of the night past James Reiner.
For the first time in over 50 minutes of game action the Bruins were within one yet when the clock hit zero, the outcome of a game expected to be decided before it even began had been flipped in Toronto's favor. For the first time since March 31st 2011, the Boston Bruins had lost to the Maple Leafs, a truth made even more painful by the fact that over the past 2 years, the Bruins have tallied a combined total 28 more points than their previously struggling original six foe.
The Bruins lost last night, and fact is this one is gonna sting for a long time.
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