Opportunistic Wild make Bruins pay as B's fall 3-1

A phantom hooking call on Shawn Thornton and an unforced turnover by Marc Savard proved to be the difference as the Bruins fell 3-1 to the Minnesota Wild at TD Garden.

Minnesota went up 1-0 on a power play goal from Martin Havlat at 4:45 of the second period, just 4 seconds after a phantom hooking call on Shawn Thornton. Havlat gained possession of the puck along the left wing boards off of a face-off, skated to the middle and shoveled a backhander in for his 9th goal of the season.

The Bruins pulled even at 1-1 with 9:10 left in the second period when rookie defenseman Steven Kampfer gathered a rebound in the slot from a Patrice Bergeron shot and wristed a shot up high past Jose Theodore for his 3rd NHL goal.

Cal Clutterbuck took advantage on a bad unforced giveaway by Marc Savard to take the lead for the Wild 2:22 into the third period. Savard's errant clearing pass from the corner was picked off by Clutterbuck on the left wing before he wheeled in towards the slot and beat Tuukka Rask high on the glove side with a laser snap shot for his 12th goal of the season.

Mikko Koivu added a tip-in empty-netter with 43 second left in the game to cement the win for Minnesota.

Notes:

- Tuukka Rask had a "save of the year" quality stop in the second period when Martin Havlat had an open net from point blank range. Rask dove a across the crease and robbed Havkat with a spectacular glove save. Tuukka stopped 31 pucks in the loss.

- I was glad to see that Claude Julien benched Marc Savard late in the game. It is about time that Claude starts holding players accountable. I think it might be time to scale back Savvy's minutes a bit until he re-gains some confidence in this game. He has done nothing this season to deserve first line minutes.

- Maybe I should have titled this post "Marc Savard and Wes McCauley spoil perfectly good hockey game".

- Why is it that this team can't play in front of Tuukka Rask?

- Gregory Campbell played in his 400th NHL game tonight.

- The Bruins have never beaten the Minnesota Wild at TD Garden. The Wild are 6-0-0 in Boston.

- The Bruins went 0 for 4 on the power play tonight. The B's have never scored a power play goal against the Wild in 11 games.

- The B's out-shot the Wild 36-34.

- The B's had 18 giveaways tonight.

- Marc Savard is a team-worst -8 in 16 games played this season.

- Now, the Bruins head to Montreal on Saturday night to battle the Canadiens for first place in the Northeast Division.

- For more on tonight's game and full updates from BReynolds' ice fishing trip, check out Hockey Wilderness

Quotes from tonight's game:

"I mean you guys saw from upstairs, I can’t say anything obviously but you tell me what you saw."

- Shawn Thornton on the hooking call that led to Martin Havlat's goal in the first period

"Yeah, I saw him at the last second, and I just dove there, and I guess the puck was bouncing a bit for him too, and he didn’t get enough wood on it. But, you know, it’s… you got to be lucky to make those saves, too, but, I guess, half-luck, half-skill."

- Tuukka Rask on his diving robbery of Martin Havlat

"We were tired group and in our zone for a bit.  I wanted to get a high flipper out in the zone to get a change but the puck never left the ice."

"I tried to flip it out because we had a tired group out there.  It was a mistake and it happens.  We have to try and bounce back from that."

- Marc Savard on the turnover that led to Cal Clutterbuck's game-winning goal