The Bruins gave up another lead in the final minute of regulation, but managed to escape with a 4-3 shootout win over the Atlanta Thrashers on the road Thursday night.
The Bruins got off to a quick 1-0 start, when Marco Sturm went to the net and Mark Recchi put the puck on his tape and Sturm's quick one-timer from the slot beat Ondrej Pavelec.
Michael Ryder made it 2-0 with 1:49 left in the first period after he deflected in a shot from Blake Wheeler.
Atlanta cut the Bruins lead to 2-1 when Nik Antropov tipped Tobias Enstrom's shot past Tuukka Rask at 9:20 of the second period.
With Mark Recchi in the box for a high-stick, Ilya Kovalchuk fired a slapper from the high slot to tie the game up at 2-2 with 5:37 left in middle period.
Michael Ryder's scored his second goal of the game to re-gain the lead for the B's on the power play with 3:15 remaining in the second period. No, that isn't a typo. The Bruins actually scored a power play goal. David Krejci collected the puck behind the net and fed a pass to Ryder, whose quick tough angle shot from the left circle found the twine.
The Thrashers knotted it up with 41.1 seconds in regulation off of a wrister from the right circle via a feed from Ilya Kovalchuk.
After a scoreless overtime session, the Bruins headed to yet another shootout:
Atlanta's 1st Shooter: Rich Peverley fired a forehand shot wide on the gloveside.
Boston's 1st Shooter: Patrice Bergeron skated in right to left and made a hard stop and cut back to his right and tucked the puck past Pavelec. 1-0 Bruins
Atlanta's 2nd Shooter: Slava Kozlov was denied on the backhand by Rask with the left pad.
Boston's 2nd Shooter: Blake Wheeler appeared to have Pavelec beat, but lost control of the puck
Atlanta's 3rd Shooter: Ilya Kovalchuk's shot is stopped by Rask. Bruins Win
Notes:
- Tuukka Rask turned aside 32 shots.
- Lesson of the night: Good things happen when you got to the net. Sturm's goal and Ryder's first goal were both a result of getting to the front of the net.
- This team is bound and determined to give all their fans a heart attack at some point during this season.
- Milan Lucic made his return to the lineup. He wasn't too much of a factor, but it was nice to see him back out there. He logged 14:01 of ice time (all even strength) and had 2 shots and a hit.
- Michael Ryder had a 2 goal night. Ryder has historically been a slow-starter and this seems like about the same time that he caught fire last year.
- The Bruins are back in action tomorrow night in Buffalo. I completely forgot about tomorrow's game, so Timmy is bailing me out with a preview.