Mark Recchi netted two goals in the third period to get to the 1,500th point mark for his career as the Bruins downed the Florida Panthers 3-1 on Wednesday night at BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, Florida.
The Bruins were trailing 1-0 heading into the third period after Steven Reinprecht's backhand put-back off of a Michal Repik shot gave the Panthers a one-goal lead at 2:14 of the second period.
The Bruins were finally able to crack goaltender Tomas Vokoun (34 saves) 8 seconds into the third period on a fluky shorthanded goal from Brad Marchand. With Milan still serving a 2-minute minor for hooking that carried over from the second period, Vokoun went behind his net to play a dump-in by Zdeno Chara from the neutral zone. The Florida netminder could not control the puck and it bounced out in front of the crease. An opportunistic Marchand was charging hard to the loose puck for his third goal of the year.
The shorty by the shorty seemed to give the B's new life as they found the back of the net just 2:46 later on Mark Recchi's third goal of the season and 1,499th NHL point. David Krejci fed a backhand pass from behind the goal line to Mark Recchi in the slot and Recchi's quick shot made it way past Vokoun for a 2-1 Boston lead early in the third period.
Mark Recchi's power play goal with 4 minutes left in the game gave the Bruins a safer lead and gave Recchi his 1,500th NHL point. With the goal, Recchi became just the 13th player in NHL history to reach the 1,500 point milestone. After some great puck movement on the powerplay, David Krejci slid a pass from along the goal line on the left wing to Milan Lucic in the slot. Lucic fired a quick shot on net and the rebound found it way to the stick of Mark Recchi at the right post, who hammered it home for his second goal of the night.
Tim Thomas stopped 31 shots to earn his 11th win of the season.
Notes:
- Mark Recchi recorded his first NHL point on January 20, 1989 in a game against the Winnipeg Jets. Recchi finished the game with a goal and an assist that night. I could not find the boxscore, so I'm not which came first.
- After originally scheduling a practice for today to prepare for Friday afternoon's game against the Carolina Hurricanes, Claude Julien gave his team the day off.
- Gregory Campbell spent part of his Thanksgiving Day delivering pies to homeless shelters throughout Boston. Campbell bought $2,000 worth of pies from Mike's Pastry.
- Andrew Ference was the only Boston skater not to register a shot on goal.
- Every Bruin skater logged at least 10 minutes of ice time. Shawn Thornton saw the least ice time at 10:56, while Dennis Seidenberg logged the most minutes with 24:23.
- The Bruins are back in action for their traditional day after Thanksgiving/Black Friday/Causeway Day noon start. The B's will host the Carolina Hurricanes this year before they turn over the TD Garden to the Celtics and Toronto Raptors for the night cap.
- For more on this game, check out Litter Box Cats
Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!