Cam Wards Off B’s
These are the games that are frustrating as a fan of the Bruins. Carolina Hurricanes goalie Cam Ward stopped 47 Bruins shots in route to his third shutout of the season, while the rest of his team put up a goal in each period for a 3-0 victory in Boston. The gave the Hurricanes, who are last place in the Eastern Conference, a season sweep of the Bruins for the first time in franchise history, dating back to the old Hartford Whaler days. Carolina outscored the Bruins 14-5 in the four games this season.
Once again, sloppy play and questionable decisions on defense led directly to Hurricane goals. Late in the second period after a high clear of the boards in the Carolina zone, the puck fell behind Bruins D-men Andrew Ference and Adam McQuaid just inside their own zone. Ference, returning from a three game suspension, tried to shovel the puck over to McQuaid who was just a few feet away, but Cane forward Brandon Sutter disrupted the play and went in on goalie Tuukka Rask. Rask made the initial save, but with the defense scrambling, Tuomo Ruutu was able to knock home the rebound at 16:41, good for his 16th goal of the year.
Early in the third period, 3:13 in, the Canes lazily dumped the puck into the Bruins goal. Rask went behind the net to play it and chipped it along the boards, but the bouncing puck went right to Carolina right winger Andreas Nodi, who quickly passed it to Sutter in the slot, wristing the shot past Rask who was not quite set in the crease yet. It was Sutter’s 12th goal of the year.
Eric Staal got the scoring started for the Canes in the first period at 11:51 one-timing a nice pass from the corner from Jiri Tlusty for his 12th goal of the year.
The Bruins were plagued with turnovers again that led to other great Carolina chances, but Rask, 28 saves, played well and saved their bacon several times. This has been a consistent theme for the Bruins of late, who have seemed to go into a bit of a funk similar to the beginning of the season. The B’s are just 4-4-1 in their last 9 games and in none of those games did they have a lead going into the third period. It was also the 5th game in a row the Bruins gave up 3 or more goals.
Bruins forward Shawn Thornton is aware of the problems, saying, “I don’t think we had everyone going again. Seems to be the same old story – we’re not that good that we can come out and go through the motions and expect to be successful. When we were on top of our game, it’s because everyone was working and that’s not happening right now.”
The B’s have been known to struggle against teams that they should beat. The proof is in the divisional records. Against the weaker Southeast division, the Bruins are 5-8-0. Against the rest of the Eastern Conference, they are 20-3-1.
The bruins play back to back matinee games his weekend. Saturday at home against the Pittsburgh Penguins, and Sunday away against the Washington Capitals.
DIFFERENCE MAKER: In the first period the Bruins peppered Ward with 22 shots while the Canes only got 8. The Canes however, took a 1-0 lead into the locker room.
Leave a Rant
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!