behind three times against the best third-period team in hockey.
The Bruins battled back to tie the game three times but ultimately fell 5-4 in a shooutout in a wild one against the Blackhawks. It was the first game of a tough stretch in which the Bruins will play three times in four nights.
Although Boston’s David Krejci struck first and helped the B’s head into the first intermission with a 1-0 lead, Tim Thomas surrendered three goals in the second period to help Chicago seize the momentum.
That’s when the craziness started. Boston managed to come from behind three times, twice in the final period. In the second, the B’s knotted the score at 2, when Daniel Paille tallied his first goal in 12 games — but Jonathan Toews‘ lamp-lighter with 27 seconds remaining helped Chicago regain the advantage.
Then, facing the best third-period defense in the NHL, Johnny Boychuck tied the game at 3 six minutes into the third period. Unfortunately for Boston, Chicago staved off the scare with a goal of its own 1:41 later, courtesy of Andrew Ladd.
Krejci scored again at the 17:17 mark in the third period to send this one into overtime, then Toews and Patrick Kane scored in the shootout to give Chicago the victory.
Thomas finished with 40 saves on a barrage of 44 shots, while his counterpart, Antti Niemi, finished with 25 saves on 29 shots.
Blackhawks 5, Bruins 4 (SO)
United Center, Chicago, Ill.
Dec. 18, 2009
Headliner: David Krejci netted the Bruins’ first goal of the game
about nine minutes into the first period. He took a perfect backhand
feed from Blake Wheeler behind the net, eluding Antti Niemi on the
glove side for his sixth goal of the season. It gave Boston a big
confidence boost in the early going and halted Chicago’s 150-minute
shutout streak.
Then, with the Bruins down 4-3 with just over 2:30 remaining in the game, Krejci tied the
game at 4 to send this one into overtime and save the Bruins from
suffering their second straight regulation loss.
Grinder: As NESN.com’s resident live blogger James Murphy said, the Bruins were able to steal a point in this one because of the play of Tim Thomas. Yes, he surrendered four goals to one of best teams in the NHL, but he could’ve surrendered about 800, given the horrendous play of Boston’s blue line, particularly in the second period. He made save after save beginning very early on, when his acrobatics prevented the B’s from going down 1-0 just 19 seconds in.
The netminder, who has struggled through most of this season thus far, made 40 saves on a whopping 44 shots.
Weak Link: “Defensive breakdown” seems to be the best way to characterize whatever the Bruins did in the second period. Everyone knew that losing Mark Stuart to a broken sternum for four to six weeks would hurt the Bruins, but if this is the way they’re going to play until he gets back, “hurt” doesn’t even begin to describe it. The blue line is inexperienced and got completely outworked by a much speedier Blackhawks squad. Andrew Ference served up Chicago’s first goal on a silver platter, Derek Morris played hurt and it showed and Andy Wozniewski failed to impress in his first game with the big club.
Simply put, the defense needs to improve by 100 percent if this team is going to lend anything resembling support to its goaltenders. Hopefully, Friday’s second period was just a bad game against a very, very tough team.
Key Moment: When you’re facing one of the best teams in the West, on the road, and you’re down by a goal heading into the second intermission, things are looking pretty bleak — unless you’re David Krejci and the Bruins, who erased two different one-goal deficits in the third period to avoid a regulation loss and send this one into overtime.
Krejci’s wristshot from eight feet with just under three minutes left in the game tied this one at 4 and forced overtime against a team that had been 12-1 when leading after two frames.
What’s Next: It’s time for KesselMania III — and judging by the way parts I and II went, the Bruins probably wish they could play Phil Kessel and the Maple Leafs every day. Boston laid quite a beating on Toronto at the TD Garden on Dec. 5, winning 7-2 behind a hat trick from Marc Savard. Then, five days later, the Bruins did it all over again, winning 5-2. Tuukka Rask was in net for both games, and judging by the fact that Tim Thomas started on Friday, he should get the nod in the second game of the back-to-back.
If Kessel doesn’t prove himself against Boston on Saturday, he won’t get another chance to do so until March. In the firs two games of this series, he’s done anything but make Boston pay for trading him prior to the 2009 season: The first time around, he registered zero points on two shots with a minus-3 rating, and in the second game, he again tallied no points on two shots.
