Boston Bruins' Patrice Bergeron, left, celebrates his goal with teammate Milan Lucic (17) during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2012, in Montreal. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Paul Chiasson)
Scoring summary
In the first period, Adam McQuaid dropped the gloves with Ryan White and they had a spirited scrap with both guys exchanging some good punches. Later, Andrew Ference scored his 5th goal of the season to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead.
Adam McQuaid vs Ryan White
In the second period, Mathieu Darche scored a shorthanded goal to tie the game 1-1. It would be the first shorthanded goal against the Bruins this season. Later, Benoit Pouliot made a nice move to get around Chris Campoli and deke to score on Price, getting his 9th goal of the season, making it 2-1 Bruins. Later in the period, Patrice Bergeron scored his 17th goal of the season, a power-play goal, on a beautiful upstairs goal as he roofed it by Carey Price who went down too early, making it 3-1 Bruins.
In the third period, Max Pacioretty and Erik Cole scored to tie the game 3-3.
In the shootout: Thomas stopped Rene Bourque, David Krejci hit the post, Thomas stopped Max Pacioretty, Tyler Seguin scored on a motion-less Price on a low stick-side shot, and Thomas stopped Lars Eller to win the game for the Bruins.
Some side-notes
If you watched this game well you were probably shaking your head a few times as I did. There were four goalie interference penalties in the game, two for each team. All four penalties looked like weak bad calls that should have not been called at all. If that's the way they're going to call it now, there's going to be some bad hockey going on for the rest of the season.
Shawn Thornton got drilled from behind into the boards in the first period and no penalty on Alexei Emelin. Thornton chased Emelin around during the game, even nailed him with a big hit later in the game. It was no surprise to anyone that Emelin declined the invitations, but he did talk when the refs were nearby.
Zdeno Chara hasn't been playing all that great lately. For the past month, maybe a little longer, almost every game he has made a bad decision, moving up into the play when he shouldn't or making a bad pass or something else. Well tonight he made a bad pass (didn't get all of it) in the defensive zone and Erik Cole stole it and went in and scored on Tim Thomas.
Chara was also hit with the puck on a shot at the end of the first period and Montreal fans cheered. They have to cheer for something, you know because they're battling it out with the Sabres for last place in the division.
Brad Marchand got a clipping penalty on Emelin at the end of the second period. It didn't look bad and I don't know if Marchand will get a talk with Shanahan again. But since Marchand's suspension from the Salo hit, there were two other clipping penalties, that I can remember off the top of my head, that received no suspension or fine from Shanahan. There was Nick Foligno (Ottawa) ducking/clipping on Dion Phaneif (Leafs) which looked a lot worse than the one tonight, and Keith Ballard (Canucks) clipping penalty on a Blackhawks player on January 31st. But this is the Bruins, right? So I'm expecting something.
Rich Peverley was injured during the game by a knee-on-knee hit by Hal Gill and Peverley did not return. No penalty on the hit. You can see it here.
Game notes
The Bruins led the game in shots 34-29 and blocked shots 23-17. Montreal led the game in hits 27-16. Both teams won 29 faceoffs apiece.
The Bruins went 1-for-5 on the power-play while Montreal went 0-for-4.
Zdeno Chara had a bad game being a team-worst -3.
Andrew Ference led the Bruins with 6 shots.
Adam McQuaid led the Bruins with 5 blocked shots, 5 PIMs, and 5 hits.
Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 35-18-2 with 72 points. The Bruins next game is on Friday at the Winnipeg Jets at 8pm ET.
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