The Bruins were able to out-gun the Philadelphia Flyers 7-5 in an action-packed, back and forth contest at TD Garden on Thursday night.
The Flyers drew first blood on the scoreboard 3:34 into the game in unusual fashion. Scott Hartnell kocked a puck out of mid air from behind the goal line and the puck glazed off the glove of Tim Thomas and into the net for his 15th goal of the season.
The Bruins took advantage of a 5 on 3 power play to knot the game up at 1-1 on a goal from Zdeno Chara at 18:16 of the first period. Marc Savard drove towards the net with the puck, causing the Philly penalty killers to collapse on the puck carrier, leaving Big Z wide open at the top of the right circle for a hard one-timer.
The Bruins opened the second with a goal from Patrice Bergeron 45 seconds in to make it 2-1. Steve Kampfer's shot from the right point deflected off Bergeron at the top of the crease and past Brian Boucher for his 14th goal of the season.
Nikolay Zherdev tied up the game at 2-2 with 4:35 left in the second period. Zdeno Chara coughed up the puck to Andreas Nodl at the offensive blueline to spring Zherdev on a breakway. Zherdev got Thomas to flop down early and pulled the puck to the back hand before chiping it past Thomas. The replay of the goal showed that Zherdev may have entered the zone before the puck.
Jeff Carter's goal with 26 seconds left in the middle period gave the Flyers a 3-2 lead after two periods. Carter won a battle for the puck along the left wing boards, skated to the left dot, and fired a hard snap shot for his 17th tally of the '10-'11 campaign.
The B's caught a break 38 seconds into the third period when Recchi got a gimme goal to tie the game up at 3-3. Zdeno Chara dumped the puck in. As Brian Boucher went back to retrieve the puck, it took a funny hop off of a glass stanchion and found its way to Mark Recchi's stick in front.
Michael Ryder got the go-ahead goal for the Bruins just 1:10 after Recchi's goal. Ryder went to the net to provide a screen and deflected Adam McQuaid's shot from the right wing boards in for his 12th goal of the season.
Danny Briere pulled the Flyers back to even at 4-4 at 6:48 of the third period when he deposited a rebound from Braydon Coburn's shot into a virtually empty net from the left post.
Sean O'Donnell's first goal of the season gave Philadelphia a 5-4 lead 7:41 into the third period. Mike Richards broke into the attacking zone on the right wing, put on the brakes at the point, and slide a pass to the trailer O'Donnelll entering the zone on the left wing. O'Donnell carried the puck to the left circle beat Thomas on the glove side.
The Bruins hit the rest button with a goal from Brad Marchand with 8:34 left in the third period. Blake Wheeler left a drop pass for Brad Marchand as he was falling to the ice. Marchand picked up the puck from Wheeler and let a shot go from the slot for his 9th goal. Replays showed that the play should have been whistled dead earlier when the puck went over the glass, hit the protective netting, and bounced back into play, but the goal stood.
Steve Kampfer netted the game-winner with 1:14 left in the game. Brad Marchand's forechecking pressure forced a turnover as Kampfer pick up a loose puck along the right wing boards and fired a snap shot that beat Brian Boucher on the far side over his right shoulder and there was nothing Boucher could do but look back in disgust and retrieve the puck from the back of the net.
Gregory Campbell added an empty-netter with 7 seconds left to account for the 7-5 final score. Blake Wheeler tracked down the puck in the right wing corner and alertly sent a pass to Campbell in the slot charging to the net.
Notes:
- Shawn Thornton fought Jody Shelley 2:35 into the game. Shelley put a pounding on Thornton early in the bout, but Thornton hung tough and was able to land a few punches before wrestling Shelley to the ice.
- NHL Guardian Project unveiled "The Bruin"...which looks like Splinter from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on HGH.
- It is great to see forechecking translating directly into goals for the Bruins the past 2 games.
- How confident does Patrice Bergeron look out there? That kid has some swagger right now and rightfully so. Bergeron has 4 straight multi-point games and 10 points (6-4-10) in his last 5 games.
- The Bruins outshot the Flyers 37-35.
- The Bruins did a great job of staying disciplined and staying out of the box against an undisciplined Philly team. The Bruins only minor penalty was a bench minor for too many men on the ice in the first period.
- 6 different Bruins recorded multi-point games (Gregory Campbell, Blake Wheeler, Mark Recchi, Zdeno Chara, Patrice Bergeron, and Steven Kampfer).
- Andrew Ference did not see the ice in the third period. It sounds like the oft-injured defenseman could be hurt:
"I can’t tell you much about it because he’s being evaluated, the same as usual. I don’t have the whole details right now and tomorrow for sure we’ll update you guys on that."
Claude Julien
- The Bruins are back in action on Satturday afternoon when they host the Pittsburgh Penguins at TD Garden.
"It’s nice to get a couple big wins at home. I think it’s important to build our confidence here, and it’s nice to get that home crowd behind us."
Mark Recchi
"It helps a lot. We obviously don’t want to be on the [penalty kill] too much against them. They’re a great team and their power play is unbelievable and they have so many, they can score on the first three lines at least, even four lines, so they’re tough to play against. And I think playing five-on-five, we’re a great team when we play five-on-five so we had to do that."
Patrice Bergeron on staying out of the box tonight
"No, I thought it stayed in from mine…you know it gets up in the air and it’s hard to see for, well probably goalies and refs, so I didn’t know but that stuff happens. I’ve been scored on from shots that go off the net. If you quit playing…you don’t quit playing until the whistle goes."
Tim Thomas on whether or not he saw the puck leave the rink on Brad Marchand's goal
"I didn’t see it. I was covering low...we had a guy skate through, and he shot it, when the guy was skating through and I didn’t pick it up."
Flyers goalie Brian Boucher on Steven Kampfer's game-winner
"Well I wish I could say it was a lot of fun although we had to come from behind a couple of times, but no, I think I liked the way our guys battled back. Even though I thought defensively we might have been a little sloppy or not as good as we have been, we still battled hard and we still found some ways to score goals and at the end of the night, that’s all you can ask for. When you beat a team like the Flyers, who are obviously a very good team this year and aren’t playing so well, at the end of the night you take the two points and you appreciate it."
Claude Julien
"Well I think that’s a reason we brought him up. When we had him here at training camp, we thought he moved the puck extremely well. I obviously didn’t see him carry the puck as much as he does now, but that’s probably from gaining some confidence in Providence and coming here and knowing that he’s got the green light to carry the puck. He’s a good skater and he does a great job. I think he’s been a great addition for our hockey club because we really lacked that early on in the year and he’s come in and provided us with some of that."
Claude Julien on Steven Kampfer's offensive contributions
"I saw the guy rimming the puck around the wall there. I had a jump on the guy, the forward up on the red line, so I just jumped in, I just tried to get a shot on net, and I was fortunate enough to beat him far-side high."
Steven Kampfer on his game-winning goal
"Boston on the whole is still stupid."
"Who the hell is Steve Kampfer?
A bitter Travis Hughes, Broad Street Hockey