The Bruins capped off a busy day off the ice with a 4-2 victory over the survivors of the Great Ottawa Senators Fire Sale of 2011 on Friday night at Scotiabank Place. The Bruins headed into the third period knotted up at 1-1. The visitors were able to find the back of the net three times in the games final 20 minutes to secure a 4-2 win over Ottawa in Tomas Kaberle and Chris Kelly's Boston Bruins debuts.
Marlborough, MA native and former UNH Wildcat Bobby Butler opened the scoring 2:50 into the second period after Jason Spezza's pass from the right wall found Butler in the slot.
Brad Marchand finished off an odd man rush by roofing a wrister from the top of the right circle over the shoulder of Ottawa goalie Robin Lehner to make it 1-1 at 6:47 of the second period.
The Bruins gained the lead at 2-1 9:47 into the third period on Nathan Horton's 15th goal of the season. David Krejci gained the offensive zone as Milan Lucic held up just enough to stay onside (or least in the eyes of the linesman). Krejci skated to the top of the right circle and fed a pass across to Horton at the top of the left circle. Horton held the puck for a moment before uncoiling a hard wrister that beat Lehner on the stick side.
The Bruins' new-look power play featuring Tomas Kaberle at the point moved the puck well to open things up for Dennis Seidenberg to rip a shot from the right circle to give the Bruins a 3-1 lead with 4:40 left in the third period. Nathan Horton and David Krejci picked up the helpers on Seidenberg's 6th goal of the season.
32 seconds after Seidenberg's tally, Brad Marchand pumped home his 2nd goal of the game to increase the Boston lead to 4-1. Patrice Bergeron tracked down Mark Recchi's dump-in behind the Ottawa goal. Bergeron then slid a pass out front to Marchand, who buried it for his 18th of the season.
Ottawa made it a 2-goal game with 1:30 left in the third period with a power play goal by Alex Kovalev. Filip Kuba's shot from the right wing was deflected in front by Kovalev for his 14th goal of the season.
Notes:
- Tuukka Rask made 33 saves to record his second win in the past 24 hours.
- The Bruins looked flat at times tonight, especially in the second period. This was far from a 60 minute effort.
- After looking at the replay, it appears that Milan Lucic was in an offside position when David Krejci broke into the attacking zone before Nathan Horton's goal.
- You can see that Kaberle is going to improve the Bruins' power play greatly. It has been a long time since the Bruins have had a legitimate power play quarterback.
- Tomas Kaberle was rocking a #12 jersey, while Chris Kelly was sporting #23.
- Thomas Kaberle's stats in his Bruins debut:
19:34 TOI, -1, 5:44 of power play time, 2 hits, 1 blocked shot
- Chris Kelly's stats in his Bruins debut:
15:09 TOI, 1 hit, 1 take-away, 1 blocked shot, 4 for 9 in face-offs, 2 PIMs
- Rich Peverley did not play tonight. The Thrashers were on the road when the trade was made, so the newly-acquired forward was given permission to fly back to Atlanta to get some things in order before joining his new team.
- Chris Kelly was given an ovation by the fans in Ottawa after the jumbotron displayed a tribute message to the former Senator.
- The Senators traded goalie Brian Elliot to the Colorado Avalanche today in exchange for goalie Craig Anderson. Anderson after the game started and joined his new teammates on the bench.
- The Bruins will head to Western Canada for games against the Calgary, Vancouver, and Edmonton before heading back to Ottawa to face the Senators again on March 1st.
- For more on tonight's contest check out Silver Seven