Boston Bruins Finally Win Two Home Games In a Row After Beating The Toronto Maple Leafs On Saturday Night
Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports
The Boston Bruins went into Saturday’s game without winning consecutive games at home this season, as well in the month of November, but that all changed on Saturday. The Bruins came up big with a win over the Toronto Maple Leafs in a game that was almost too close to call until the closing minutes. With Zdeno Chara finding the back of the net for his third goal of the season, and the games first goal at 16:17 of the third period, the Bruins were able to earn a win against the Maple Leafs. Brad Marchand also chipped an empty net goal with seven seconds remaining to put the Bruins up 2-0, which was also the game’s final score.
Puck Prose
Saturday night’s Original Six tilt between the Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs was dominated by the play of both Tuukka Rask and James Reimer. Entering the game, Tuukka Rask held an 11-3-1 record in the regular season against the Maple Leafs with a 1.85 Goals Against Average. On the other side of the ice, James Reimer was riding an impressive 5-0-0 in his last five starts with a .960 Save Percentage and a 1.36 Goals Against Average. While Tuukka Rask hasn’t played very well so far this season, his history against the the Maple Leafs as well as Reimer’s recent surge of hot play made a battle of goalies seem plausible, and it was certainly an interesting game to watch as a result.
James Reimer and Tuukka Rask both made unbelievable saves from start to finish to keep their teams in the game with Reimer making 35 of 36 saves compared to Tuukka Rask‘s 22 of 22. The Bruins consistently fired shots on net which led to such a high shot total for Reimer, but that shouldnt’ take away from Tuukka Rask‘s night as he made some incredible saves to earn the win. This game marked Tuukka Rask‘s second shutout win of the season which he will hopefully build on moving forward.
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After the game, Bruins’ head coach Claude Julien had this to say. “We had to work really hard to get this win…they did a really good job around their net.” He went on to say “Our team did a good job of staying focused on what we needed to do and not getting frustrated.” Julien gave credit to both goaltenders on the night, however, and rightfully so as James Reimer continued his incredible play for his sixth straight start.
The Bruins concluded their five game home-stand with a 3-2 record. After dropping a 3-2 loss to the Colorado Avalanche, the Bruins followed up with a 3-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings. Following that game, they lost a 5-4 gave to the San Jose Sharks, and ended their home-stand strong with 4-2 and 2-0 wins over the Minnesota Wild and Toronto Maple Leafs respectively. While the Bruins did lose two of the five games, it’s important to note that they were both one goal games that could have very realistically ended up with entirely different results.
The Bruins will play the Maple Leafs again on Monday in Toronto and will look to win three consecutive games for the second time this season.
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