Call it opening night jitters but whatever was holding back the Bruins in their first game was certainly dead and gone tonight as they crushed the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-1 Saturday night at TD Garden. Rich Perveley scored two goals while Daniel Paille and David Krejci had the remaining tallies.
Unlike their last game against the Flyers the Bruins managed to hold a high scoring Tampa lineup to only 22 shots while the B’s peppered Lightning goalie Mathieu Garon with 42 shots of their own.
Peverley got the scoring started at 2:04 in the second period when he buried a rebound off a Brad Marchand shot from the left circle. A little over a minute later Martin St. Louis snuck behind the Bruins defense and potted a breakaway chance to tie the game at one.
Pallie got the point back when he tipped an Adam Mcquaid wrister to put the Bruins back up 2-1 at 4:58 in the second. Krecji and Peverley topped off the scoring.
It was another strong game for Marchand and Tyler Seguin who ended the night with two assists each. The two have combined for six points in the first two games of the season.
Benoit Pouliot made his regular season debut for the Bruins and despite not appearing on the score sheet made a good impression, laying a punishing hit on Brett Clark and providing a strong net front presence throughout the game.
The Bruins are now 1-1 and next faceoff with the Colorado Avalanche Monday afternoon at the Garden.