2 days after Montreal handed the Bruins one of the most disappointing losses suffered by the Bruins in a while they god back on their horse as they welcomed Andrew Ference back to Boston for the first time since he signed with the Oilers last summer.
Long story short, they did not suffer a repeat of the Montreal game and combined a much better defense with a speedy drive to the net that produced an all-around complete 4-0 win for the Big Bad Bruins. One of the biggest contributing factors to this victory was Chad Johnson who all season long has been a man who may have been getting a bit too much criticism.
After he was signed in the offseason, Johnson has never fallen from the role of Tuukka Rask's backup and frankly, he has only messed up once back when he allowed a rather easy wraparound goal a few months back in Buffalo. To state plainly, after Niklas Svedberg proved to be no better than Johnson when he got his game, the Bruins have since learned that this 27 year old Canadian is the best that they have. But that makes him sound bad. In this his 16th game played as a Bruin, Johnson logged his 10th win of the season as well as his first shutout in Boston and his second of his career. Of the 22 shots Johnson stopped one of them in particular stood out. With just under 15 minutes to go in the first period, the Bruins committed a turnover in the offensive zone and then got burned on defense leaving Johnson all alone as the massive Alex Hemski came barreling towards him.
Johnson however stayed square and even as Torey Krug lost his stick and sent it careening across the chest and face of his goalie, that goalie did not budge holding the butterfly all the way through and shoving the puck wide of the net to preserve the then 0-0 tie game.
From there however, the Bruins offence took over. To give a bit of background, the goalie they were going up against, Ben Scrivens was fresh off of playing the best regulation shutout an NHL goalie had ever played logging 60 saves in a 3-0 Edmonton win Wednesday night. Through the first period of Saturday's game however, Scrivens who was also coming off of a great 2nd and 3rd period in the game before his record breaking performance, he alone had turned away 90 straight shots. As the moved into the 2nd period against Boston and looked to stretch that streak to triple digits, David Krejci proved that he had other plans. With just under 30 seconds remaining in an early 2nd period power play, Jarome Iginla, Milan Lucic and Zdeno Chara decided to all pile within 2 or 3 feet of the Edmonton crease as they looked to isolate a stickless Jordan Eberle. But as no lanes opened close to the net, Iginla turned and quickly dumped the puck off to the cool headed David Krejci back at the top of the faceoff circle. As he lunged forward to receive the pass, Krejci somehow torqued the puck past Scrivans and gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead and their first goal since the first period in Montreal.
As usual though, Krejci showed no emotion remaining focused on the close game that would stay that way until about a quarter of the way into the 3rd period.
6 minutes into the 3rd period with the game still sliding ever so slightly in favor of the Bruins, Dougie Hamilton took the puck at his own blue line and split past the defense as he went around the boards. At around the face off dot, Hamilton lobbed an easy shot at the left pad of Scrivans all the while knowing that he would be able to pick up the rebound as he did. Without hesitation, Hamilton slammed his skates into the ice and turned through the back of the net all as Scrivans lost track of him and took just a fraction of a second to get to the opposite post than Hamilton. Hamilton saw this and with the utmost ease looped the puck inside the crossbar and past Scrivans to give the Bruins the lead and officially beat his scoring stats from a year ago.
Though the game was not done, it was that goal that pretty much sealed this game. But the Bruins did not care. In true Boston fashion, the B's continued to press late into the 3rd and added goals by Carl Soderberg and Torey Krug to their already productive night.
Though the game was not done, it was that goal that pretty much sealed this game. But the Bruins did not care. In true Boston fashion, the B's continued to press late into the 3rd and added goals by Carl Soderberg and Torey Krug to their already productive night.
Excluding the Montreal game, the Bruins have been a driven, relentless team of late as for the 4th time in 5 games, they relied on the great work of their veterans to propel the team to victory. And yet, after 3 different Bruins logged 2 point nights, Chad Johnson was the star of this show playing better than he ever has since coming to the Bruins.
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