Bruins Topple Another Hot Team, Outlast Devils 4-3

by Cup of Chowder Staff on Nov 15, 2011 11:04 PM EST

There are pretty hockey games, and then there are pretty hockey games.

Tuesday night’s matchup between New Jersey and Boston was neither of those things.

Sloppy play, bad penalties and missed connections filled the evening, and while the final score might have suggested that there was a flow of attack and counter-attack to the game, it was anything but.

Benoit Pouliot was the beneficiary of a half-period of Bruins buzzing the net as he scooped up a loose puck and feathered it past Johan Hedberg with 3:01 left to play in the third period, breaking the tie and giving the Bruins the decisive advantage after a back-and-forth third period that saw two goals scored by each team in the first 6:56 of the period.

Brad Marchand – who committed one of those bad penalties, a roughing call on Adam Henrique in the Bruins attacking zone and was benched for the rest of the second period – scored just six seconds into the third, getting a clean break off the faceoff and beating Hedberg five-hole to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead.

But it didn’t hold for long. Both outfits traded goals over the next few minutes, making it 3-3 with 13 minutes to play in the period.

Nick Palmieri, who bookended the Devils’ scoring, started the scoring at 10:46 of the second period when he squeeze a puck past Tim Thomas during a 5-on-3 advantage for New Jersey, but Chris Kelly would even the score four minutes later when Gregory Campbell won a battle for the puck down low and Rich Peverley got the puck away from an out-of-position Hedberg to give Chris Kelly a tap-in goal.

Shawn Thornton scored his first goal in 17 games (the last time Boston faced New Jersey in the final game of the 2010-11 regular season), and Chris Kelly netter Boston’s first goal. The Devils also got a marker from rookie Adam Henrique.

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Comments

that was a hell of a third period

by mc34 on Nov 15, 2011 11:07 PM EST reply actions

Who knew Pouliot could be clutch?

For Horton!

by Scott Frano on Nov 15, 2011 11:24 PM EST reply actions

ill take it

its a win, thats pretty much all we can say here, nice to see pouliot get the winner. not to jump ahead but with cbj and the isles next wouldnt it be nice to head into montreal and buffalo on a 8 game win streak?

by marty.funkhauser on Nov 16, 2011 7:37 AM EST reply actions

that would be beautiful

I really hope they don’t take the Isles and CBJ lightly, though.

Kick his ass, Seabass!

by phonymahoney on Nov 16, 2011 9:41 AM EST up reply actions

That is my worry as well.

Hopefully they learn how to take advantage of weaker teams. They don’t always seem to take these teams seriously. I’m looking for the B’s to improve in that area this year.

by I Love Ska on Nov 17, 2011 1:13 PM EST reply actions

Devils fan here.

I looked over the Bruins gamethread during that game. I found it remarkable the sort of cocky overconfidence there. Lots of talk about getting your 6th (7th?) straight win, winning 5-0 or netting 6 goals anyway. Jokes in good company, probably, but results like the Bruins have had never hold for long. They’ll always regress to normal goal production levels.

Obviously, the Bruins pulled out a win after a vicious 3rd period, but that was about as close as any team has come to stopping you guys lately. As a Devils fan, I was very happy without the Devs showing.

I think they handled the Bruins fast-break/ transition game speed and no-look passes to the point/ slot very well. If nothing else, it gave some indication to the rest of the NHL that the Bruins can be beaten with some stodgy defense if they’re kept off balance with a good forecheck and aren’t allowed to break out all the time.

Sure, the Devs didn’t get a point from the game, but keeping even with the Champs after every goal and then holding them until 2 minutes left… only to be taken down by a relatively flukey rebound goal… well, the Devs did everything right in that game but just couldn’t hold out.

by Alan Wright on Nov 17, 2011 2:44 PM EST reply actions