November 21st, 2014
by Dakota Antelman
A slow start proved to be nothing that could not be overcome by a resilient Bruins team Friday night.
After falling behind 2-0 early in the first period, the Bruins scored three times in the final 20 minutes of the game to eventually tie things up and secure at least a point . From there they stumbled through a tight OT period and a seven round shootout before finally rookie forward Alex Kohlachev ended things for Boston.
For those present, the polar changes made between the first two periods and the third were so drastic that they seemed to break Friday’s game in two.
“As a team we kind of let go of our 1st period problems and started going hard in the 3rd period,” said Bruins goalie Niklas Svedberg.
The Bruins were outshot, out hit and generally outplayed early on with Svedberg himself making key positional mistakes. Both of his goals allowed came on deflected shots taken when he was deep in his own net.
Beyond that, the Bruins defensive core was physically lacking with younger defenders Matt Bartowski and Kevin Miller surrendering the neutral zone to Columbus’ rushes with frequency.
But however bad as things seemed, the coaching staff seemed to diagnose and remedy their problems with ease and decisiveness during their address to the team during the second intermission.
“We were doing good things in the first two periods but in the end it was those little things that were getting us,” Bruins coach Claude Jullian said of his addressing the team at the break. “Little things we had to get better at. Those being just getting some presence on our shots, we were taking these shots with nobody there for rebounds. We just needed more net and that’s what we got in that third period.”
The Bruins, ignited by whatever was specifically said in that second intermission, saw their
competitive spirit fanned into a roaring bonfire when Dennis Seidenberg hammered an 80ft slap shot past Sergei Bobrovsky to break the shutout. The goal which was scored just over a minute into the third period was the catalyst of the eventual comeback.
“Those first two periods were kind of boring, but that third period must have been fun to watch!” Said Svedberg.
Svedberg would surrender a late goal that sent the game to overtime but was generally strong. He stopped 8 of 9 third period shots. For him though, the dominance was most notably felt in the shootout where he stopped all of Columbus’ seven shots.
Jullian glowed about his goalie’s performance after the game.
“They got some pretty good shootout players on their team and Svedberg stood tall and really played great in that shootout,” he said.
Needless to say, some sort of scoring must be achieved to win a hockey game. In the end it was another rookie who got the job done. Alex Khokhlachev, who still does not have an NHL goal, grabbed his first shootout winner when he slipped a wrist shot under the pad of Bobrovsky in the seventh round.
The goal served as Boston’s walk off for the night with the Bruins skating over to congratulate Kokhlachev before immediately turning their focus to Saturday’s meeting with the Canadians.
All and all, the team was happy with how they exhibited their ability to turn games around when they seem surely lost.
"That was a good comeback win, knowing we're down two goals going into the third," said Julien. "To be able to get that short-lived 3-2 lead was a good sign from this hockey club."
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