Who are these Bruins? They were creating (and more importantly finishing) offensive chances and playing a tough brand of hockey..and they looked like were having fun doing it. The Bruins downed the Flyers 5-1 in Philly on Thursday night as 5 different players found the back of the net for the B's and Tuukka Rask (31 saves) held down the fort at the other end of the ice.
Blake Wheeler gave the Bruins a 1-0 edge 13:15 into the game on a backhander that beat Michael Leighton for his 15th goal of the season. David Krejci skated the puck in wide on the left wing boards and fed a pass to Wheeler in the slot trailing the play.
Moments later Mark Stuart and Daniel Carcillo dropped the gloves. Both players wound up for some big haymakers. I'm not sure how many of those haymakers landed, but I had Stuart will the decision on my card.
Jeff Carter's power play goal 44 seconds into the second period knotted it up at 1-1 for the Flyers
The Bruins regained the lead less than 4 minutes later when Mark Recchi finished off a textbook breakout play by roofing a wrister over Michael Leighton for his 14th goal of the season. Patrice Bergeron and Dennis Seidenberg picked up assists on the play.
Mark Stuart got into his second scrap of the game at 7:41 of the middle period. This time, Ian Laperriere was his dance partner. Stuart scored the takedown after using a technique that can only be described as the Reverse Cornholio.
Patrice Bergeron extended the Bruins' lead to 3-1 with 9:30 left in the second period when he battled for position at the top of the crease and put back a rebound from Marco Sturm's shot.
The B's struck just 46 second later to make it a 3-goal game when David Krejci put home a rebound from Michael Ryder's backhander. Krejci's 13th goal of the season chased Michael Leighton from the game, who was replaced in goal by Rhode Island native Brian Boucher.
Marco Sturm made it 5-1 with 7:25 left in the third period. Patrice Bergeron made a great move to get around Chris Pronger and slid a pass to Marco Sturm, who was driving to the net and finished it off for his 21st goal of the '09-'10 campaign.
Notes:
- Zdeno Chara was back in the lineup after missing last game with a lower body injury. Chara logged 21:56 of ice time, put 3 shots on goal, had a hit and a blocked shot, while finishing the night a +2.
- Daniel Cracillo was tagged with a 10 minute misconduct following an altercation in the third period. Carcillo made contact with a linesman, who had stepped in front of Carcillo. The linesman was trying to restrain Carcillo and Carcillo looked to have slapped the linesman's hand away and gave the official a bit of a push.
- Tuukka Rask was amazing all night, stopping 31 shots including a few highlight reel saves.
- Patrice Bergeron had a 3-point night (1 goal, 2 assists).
- Dennis Seidenberg had his best game in his short time in a Bruins uniform. Seidenberg finished the game with 2 assists, 4 blocked shots, and was a +3.
- The Bruins will head north of the border on Saturday to take on the Montreal Canadiens for the final this season.
- I've said this before, but the Flyers need to bring back the Cooperalls.
- For more on this game from a Philly perspective, check out Broad Street Hockey