Saturday night hockey? Is this a thing? The Bruins come to town after beating the Senators 5-0 the night before in Boston.
Mandatory Credit: Marc DesRosiers-USA TODAY Sports
GAME RECAP
It didn’t take long for the first penalty of the game. Brad Marchand went off for slashing just 11 seconds into the game. The Senators didn’t score on the man advantage, but it helped them get off to a good start, outshooting the Bruins 6-1 at one point. Patrick Wiercioch opened the scoring in his first appearance since being a healthy scratch for the past 4 consecutive games. Daniel Paille would tie the game five minutes later for the Bruins, from what seemed like a harmless play. Erik Karlsson charged the puck, thinking he had teammates behind him. With the puck on his stick and no one else in front of him, Paille scored the tying goal. Just two minutes later, the Senators would take back the lead. Kyle Turris chipped the puck towards the Boston net, and Cory Conacher deflected the puck to the top corner of the net, just above Tuukka Rask’s shoulder.
The second period started in a similar fashion to the first. Joe Corvo took a penalty just 15 seconds in to give the Bruins an early powerplay, though having the man advantage didn’t help the Bruins. Erik Condra and Zack Smith came tearing down the ice, into the Bruins’ zone. Condra found Smith, cutting between the Boston defencemen, and Smith put the puck in five-hole. That was the end of Rask’s night, as Chad Johnson took over in the Boston net. Jarome Iginla would bring the Bruins to within one, with just over six minutes remaining.
The Bruins tied the game with 14 minutes left. David Warsofsky scored his first career NHL goal to tie the game at 3 goals apiece. At first, it seemed as though Iginla gave the Bruins the lead. After review, it was decided that he had kicked the puck in. Then with less than five minutes left, Bobby Ryan managed to sneak off the bench while Paul MacLean wasn’t looking. Ryan took the puck, skated down the ice on his own, managed to kick the puck up to his stick, and scored on a beautiful forehand-backhand move on Johnson. Zack Smith took a penalty late in the game, but despite some incredible pressure by the Bruins, the Senators managed to pull off a huge win.
SENSHOT PLAYER OF THE GAME
Cody Ceci had his first ever multi-point NHL game, with two assists. He was also +3, and had over 19 minutes of ice time, including time on both the powerplay and penalty kill.
THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS
- MacLean seems to think that playing the Greening-Smith-Neil line during every possible moment will solve all of their problems. Here’s a piece of advice, Paul: it won’t.
- Anderson has been good in the past two games he has played. This is so cool.
- The Ryan-MacArthur-Turris line keeps looking good, yet the Greening-Smith-Neil line keeps getting the most ice time, including the last moments of the game.
UP NEXT
The Senators take on the Washington Capitals on Monday night in Ottawa.