BOSTON, MA - JANUARY 31: Dennis Seidenberg #44 of the Boston Bruins is congratulated by teammates on the bench after he scored the game winning goal against the Ottawa Senators on January 31, 2012 at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Bruins defeated the Ottawa Senators 4-3. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
In the first period, Zdeno Chara scored his 8th goal of the season, a power-play goal to take the lead 1-0. Earlier Chris Neil took a run at Shawn Thornton as Thornton went in to try and score. Thornton didn't like it and challenged Neil but Neil backed down, not surprisingly. So after the Bruins went up 1-0 then Neil drops the gloves with Thornton and they have a good long spirited bout. And yes, they have fought each other before. Thornton probably didn't forget about Neil going after Dennis Seidenberg last season either.
Shawn Thornton vs Chris Neil
A little later, Zenon Konopka went right at Adam McQuaid and challenged him and they dropped the gloves and had a spirited bout as well. This could have just been Konopka trying to get his team going or it could have been Konopka going after McQuaid for some revenge, as in the last Bruins-Senators meeting, McQuaid got a kneeing major on Nick Foligno.
Adam McQuaid vs Zenon Konopka
Later in the period, Colin Greening tied the game 1-1 for Ottawa.
In the second period, Kyle Turris scored to make it 2-1 Ottawa. Later, Erik Karlsson scored to make it 3-1 Ottawa. With 45 seconds left in the period, Milan Lucic scored his 18th goal of the season to make it 3-2.
In the third period, Brad Marchand scored his 18th goal of the season, a power-play goal, to tie the game 3-3. Later, Dennis Seidenberg scored his 3rd goal of the season to give the Bruins a 4-3 lead, which would be the game-winner. Seidenberg took a long slap shot from the center ice red line and the puck looked to bounce off the ice and change direction slightly and it got by goalie Craig Anderson. Anderson has been known to give up bad goals and if he threw his whole body in front of the puck he may have had that one.
Dennis Seidenberg's goal from the red line
Game notes
The Bruins led the game in blocked shots 16-11. The Senators led the game in shots 33-30, faceoff wins 31-28 and hits 32-20.
The Bruins went 2-for-4 on the power-play while the Senators didn't get any power-play chances. In the third period, the Senators were upset they didn't get any power-play chances and some players were even diving to try and get some calls, *cough* Chris Neil.
Tim Thomas played in net for the Bruins and made 30 saves on 33 shots. Thomas is now 21-9-0 with a 2.15 GAA and a .933 save percentage.
Zdeno Chara had 1 goal and 1 assist, was -1, and led the Bruins with 4 hits.
Joe Corvo had 2 assists and was +1.
Milan Lucic had 1 goal and 1 assist. Lucic would have had a Gordie Howe hat trick but Chris Neil backed down after Neil put a hit on David Krejci. Again, not surprising Neil backed down, he probably remembered the beating he took in the preseason two years ago against Lucic.
Dennis Seidenberg also had 1 goal and 1 assist.
Even though the Bergeron-Marchand-Seguin line were flying last night, they were all -2.
Tyler Seguin led the Bruins with 6 shots.
Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 32-14-1 with 66 points (1st place in the Northeast Division and 2nd place in the Eastern Conference). The Bruins next game is on Thursday when they host the Carolina Hurricanes in Boston at 7pm ET.
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