Bruins power-play awakes, dominate Leafs

BOSTON, MA - OCTOBER 20: Tim Thomas #30 of the Boston Bruins celebrates the win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on October 20, 2011 at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Bruins defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-2. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

What a difference the way the Bruins played tonight compared to their meltdown against the Hurricanes. Tonight the Bruins changed up the forward lines and worked the power-play well going 2 for 5 in the game. David Krejci returned to the lineup which provided a boost and Steven Kampfer was inserted into the lineup. They were also able to shutdown Phil Kessel again. Kessel had 0 points, was -1 and had 1 shot on net. And we got to hear the "Thank you Kessel" chant which is priceless.

Less than two minutes into the game, Shawn Thornton dropped the gloves with tough guy Colton Orr in a good even fight which really got the crowd going. This was Orr's first fight since his fight against George Parros last season where he sustained a concussion and missed the rest of the season. The Leafs would score first as Dave Steckel scored to make it 1-0 Leafs. Later, on the power-play, off a faceoff, Andrew Ference retrieved the puck passed over to Zdeno Chara who took a big shot, Nathan Horton came in and got the rebound and put it past Jonas Gustavsson to tie the game 1-1. That was Horton's 2nd goal of the season. Less than six minutes later, the Bruins were on the power-play again, and Chara one-timed a Ference pass and put it up and by Gustavsson to make it 2-1 Bruins. What a shot that was by Chara as he scored his 1st goal of the season. Less than two minutes later, Chris Kelly scored his 2nd goal of the season as he stayed with the puck and on his third shot on the play he got it in the net to make it 3-1.

In the second period, no scoring happened.

In the third period, Milan Lucic scored his 1st goal of the season from a beautiful pass from Tyler Seguin, to make it 4-1. Later in the period, Patrice Bergeron scored his 1st goal of the season on a wrist shot that beat Gustavsson's glove side, to make it 5-1. Later Lucic returned the favor to Seguin with a sweet pass in the slot to Seguin who roofed the puck over Gustavsson's glove side to make it 6-1. That was Seguin's 2nd goal of the season. A little later the Bruins defense broke down and Mikhail Grabovski scored to make it 6-2. Grabovski had a lot of chances in the game and finally buried one of them.

Again in this game there were a lot of questionable penalties to both teams. The Bruins killed all three penalties they took.

Game notes
The Bruins led the game in shots 43-28 and faceoff wins 38-29. The Leafs led the game in hits 27-18 and blocked shots 20-19.

Tim Thomas played in net and made 26 saves on 28 shots. Thomas is now 3-2 with a 1.98 GAA and a .932 save percentage.

The Bruins had 4 players with 3 points apiece tonight. Zdeno Chara had 1 goal and 2 assists. Andrew Ference had 3 assists. Milan Lucic had 1 goal and 2 assists. Tyler Seguin had his first ever 3-point game, getting 1 goal and 2 assists.

Patrice Bergeron led the Bruins with 9 shots on net.

Andrew Ference led the Bruins with 4 blocked shots.

Gregory Campbell led the Bruins with 3 hits.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 3-4 this season. The Bruins next game is on Saturday against the struggling San Jose Sharks who are 1-3 this season. The game is at 7pm ET in Boston. Joe Thornton will be back in Boston. If you remember last season, Thornton had some comments about Boston and how the Bruins don't get disciplined.