Ugly start but Bruins finish strong, beat Penguins

Bruins-Penguins incidents, Thornton KO's Orpik w/SlowMo 12/7/13. Video by Dafoomie.


Shawn Thornton speaks to the media after his incident with Brooks Orpik, on December 7, 2013. Video by Dafoomie.

It was an ugly start to a hard-hitting, hard-fought game where the Bruins didn't give up and scored two goals in the final two minutes of the game to win it 3-2. The ugliness in the first period ends up with both teams losing a player each.

Quick game summary
In the first period, early in the game, Penguins Brooks Orpik hit Bruins Loui Eriksson with a big hit, which should have been an interference penalty as Eriksson didn't touch the puck but instead nothing was called. Eriksson had trouble getting to the bench and didn't return to the game. It has been confirmed after the game that Eriksson has another concussion, the first one was from the John Scott cheapshot earlier this season.

A few shifts later, Bruins Shawn Thornton went at Orpik, challenging him multiple times but Orpik didn't man up and declined to drop the gloves, and the refs gave Thornton a 2-minute penalty. On the power-play, Penguins Chris Kunitz scored, making it 1-0 Penguins. A little later, Bruins Milan Lucic dropped the gloves with Penguins Deryk Engelland in a fight that started strong but ended quickly and I would call it a draw. Later, Bruins Reilly Smith scored his 6th goal of the season, tying the game 1-1.

Minutes later, Penguins James Neal kneed Bruins Brad Marchand in the head while Marchand was down on the ice and it looked intentional (see first video above). During the stoppage after the Neal cheapshot, Shawn Thornton went after Brooks Orpik, knocking him down to the ice and gave him two gloved punches to the head. A stretcher was brought out to take Orpik to the hospital. Thornton was given a match penalty and will be suspended, as he has an in-person hearing tomorrow, and Neal has a phone hearing tomorrow. On the power-play, Penguins James Neal scored, making it 2-1 Penguins.

In the second period, no scoring happened.

In the third period, with less than two minutes left and Tuukka Rask pulled from the net, Bruins David Krejci scored his 5th goal of the season, tying the game 2-2. With 13 seconds left in the game, Bruins Zdeno Chara scored his 7th goal of the season, making it 3-2 Bruins.

Injury notes
Loui Eriksson has a concussion and Chris Kelly has lower body injury from a slash, neither of them will travel to Toronto for tomorrow's game.

Game notes
Tuukka Rask played in net for the Bruins and made 28 saves on 30 shots. Rask is now 15-7-2 with a 1.91 GAA and a .934 save percentage this season.

The Bruins led the game in faceoff wins 32-21. The Penguins led the game in shots 30-21, hits 36-31 and blocked shots 22-15. The Bruins went 0-for-4 on the power-play while the Penguins went 2-for-7.

Dougie Hamilton led the Bruins with 3 shots. Dennis Seidenberg and David Krejci led the Bruins with 6 hits each. Dennis Seidenberg led the Bruins with 6 blocked shots.

Player notes
Johnny Boychuk (injured), Jordan Caron and Adam McQuaid (scratches) were out of the lineup.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 19-8-2 with 40 points and 2nd place in the Atlantic Division. The next game for the Bruins is tomorrow at the Toronto Maple Leafs at 7pm ET.