Feb 2, 2013; Toronto, ON, Canada; Boston Bruins left wing
Brad Marchand(64) drives to the net as Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman
Mike Komisarek(8) defends at the Air Canada Centre. Mandatory Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports
Whatever went down against Buffalo in Boston the other night seems to have not followed the Bruins to Toronto. The Bruins played a phenomenal game against the Toronto Maple Leafs as they battled for 3 periods to hold down a 1 goal advantage as James Reimer and Tuukka Rask battled for goalie supremacy. The 60th anniversary of Hockey Night and Canada brought good ol’ fashion bout between these two Original Six rivals and the Bruins collect their 6th win of the season and Rask gets his first shutout.
The Bruins opened the scoring with a rejuvenated Chris Bourque who is learning how to play Bruins hockey, he crashed the net and snuck his way in behind the Maple Leaf defence as they were committed to Chris Kelly. Kelly saucered to Peverly and he tipped it right to Bourque who put it right in the net before channeling his Dad with a fist pump celly. This would be the only goal the Bruins would manage to get by Reimer.. that counted anyway.
Again, as we’ve seen numerous times, the officiating of the NHL is at Kerry Fraser levels of awful as Tyler Seguin was disallowed a goal for “goaltender interference”. Somehow Mike Komisarek knocking James Reimer completely out of position and Seguin making incidental nudge contact with Reimer’s helmet is enough to cap Seguin with an interference call. Reimer was back into the play and attempted a save on Seguin when the puck went off his skate. Let me repeat that.. Reimer was back into the play and attempted a save on Seguin when the puck went off his skate. If they wanted to make a goalie interference call the play should have been blown dead when Bergeron got control of the puck, not when it went in off of Seguin. And to top that off, Reimer was not taken out of the play and attempted a save against Seguin. Contact from your teammate is not goaltender interference against the opposing team, it’s just a mistake on the part of Mike Komisarek.
Speaking of mistakes, or rather the lack there of now, the Boston Bruins were able to fix whatever defence problems plagued them Thursday night against the Sabres. The Bruins pinched and shut down the Leafs the whole game and when they had trouble Rask stood up to make the saves against the Leaf forwards. I think the shots against stats against the goalies tell the story though. Rask made 24/24 stops while Reimer made 33/34 stops. that’s 10 more shots Reimer faced then Rask and it’s sort of expected considering how weak the Leafs defence is.
The Boston Bruins now will take a 4 day rest before coming back to face the Montreal Canadiens in Montreal on February 6th.