The Boston Bruins rout the Ottawa Senators 5-0 at the TD Garden.
Dec 27, 2013; Boston, MA, USA; Ottawa Senators right wing Chris Neil (25) looks for a rebound in front of Boston Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask (40) and defenseman Matt Bartkowski (43) during the third period of Boston
The Boston Bruins just made it look easy last night at the TD Garden. Tuukka Rask stopped all thirty three shots for his fourth shutout of the season. Reilly Smith led the team with two goals in a 5-0 rout of the Ottawa Senators. Rask (20-8-2) has allowed one goal or fewer in fifteen out of thirty starts this season. Tuukka is now the third goalie in the NHL to hit the twenty win mark for goaltenders.
The Bruins are 13-0-2 in their last 15 home games and have won eight straight in Boston. They haven’t lost there in regulation since just before Halloween. The Bruins also tied a club record by having a player score two goals for the seventh straight game. This last happened in 1929. Out of the seven double scores, Reilly Smith has done it three times.
Ottawa came on strong during the first period. They opened up a quick and dominant 15-5 shot advantage against the Bruins. Once the second period started however, the Black and Gold came out firing on all cylinders. The Bruins countered their earlier shot drought with a 20-8 fusillade against Robin Lehner. Lehner attempt to be a Patriot missile against a patented ‘Johnny Rocket’ from Johnny Boychuk. Lehner came up a little woozy, but did finish the game.
Jarome Iginla got the Bruins on the board when he got a great on the door step rebound from Lehner. The Sens goalie was unable to control the rebound off of Torey Krug‘s slap shot. At the end of the second period, the Bruins held only a 1-0 advantage, but they left with all the momentum swinging their way.
The third period was just twenty minutes of watching a Bruins team put on a clinic on how to pummel an opposing net minder. The Bruins came into the period just belching fire and Lehner received little or no support from his fellow Senators. David Krejci made it 2-0 with a right circle shot just :38 into the third period. Reilly Smith scored twice in the third period in succession giving him sole possession of the Bruins leader in scoring. Smith now has fourteen goals, and is making a lot of people wonder what sort of magic Peter Chiarelli does just before he makes a trade offer to another team.
Brad Marchand who has finally been bringing the skill and scoring potential that was so very lacking earlier in the season finished off the barrage with a short-handed goal in the last thirty seconds of regulation. It’s not often we get to see the Bruins come alive and put four goals in the final period of a game. The last time we saw the B’s put on a display of that magnitude a lot of Maple Leafs fans had their hearts ripped out of their chests. The Bruins will finish the home-and-home series with the Senators in Ottawa tomorrow night.