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Gifs/Vids all courtesy of @PeteBlackburn/Days of Y'Orr & @CrzyCanucklehed/Our own Chris Abraham.
The Bruins remain tied with the Detroit Red Wings at 95 points, and 3 points up on the 92-point Ottawa Senators. Patrice Bergeron and Tuukka Rask--your 98.5 Three Starts of 2014-15--won this game. Boston as a team had 50 shots on goal, but hit countless more skates, sticks, and posts, or just flat-out missed the net. James Reimer won't get enough credit for how well he played, but at this point what's the difference?
1st Period
Early on, Toronto lost a forward in Trevor Smith. He took a fairly routine Chara hit, but fell to the ice hard and leaked a little blood before leaving and not returning.
Not a lot else happened in the 1st Period, creating a fairly uneasy vibe in TD Garden.
2nd Period
That is, until our Alternate Captain and Saviour Patrice Bergeron put his own rebound by James Reimer less than a minute into the 2nd period, giving the Bruins a 1-0 lead.
The Leafs applied pressure back, but couldn't beat Rask. An icing by Adam McQuaid led to a lost faceoff in the defensive zone, which created a sloppy play by both McQuaid and Matt Bartkowski. James Van Riemsdyk capitalized and tapped the puck in, tying the game 1-1.
It would stay 1-1 going into the 3rd period, keeping the uneasiness alive and well.
3rd Period
Everyone forgot a little about how worried they felt when they saw Rally Liam.
But it quickly came back when Chara came up lame after a shot block.
He barely got back to the bench, but never went down the tunnel because he's a boss.
As the game went into overtime, we all felt like Cam Neely.
Overtime/Shootout
After a scoreless overtime, we went to a shootout. After each team went 0-for-2, Patrice Bergeron stepped up to the plate and outlasted Reimer, getting the Toronto netminder to go down.
On the other end, Rask stopped a pretty lackluster chance by Nazem Kadri, but regardless of the quality of the shot, Tuukka was pumped.
And you should be too! The Bruins have three games left in the regular season, two against the now out-of-the-hunt Florida Panthers, and have a damn good chance at locking up a Wild Card slot, or 3rd place in the Atlantic Division.
Everyone, breathe. And if for some reason you're angry, maybe throw a puck at the wall like Max Talbot.