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These are words I never thought I would associate with the Boston Bruins, whose power play isn’t exactly the greatest ever and is not considered a strong point of their game. But in their come-from-behind 3-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning, their power play really made a huge difference.
Actually, the power play was a difference-maker for both teams. Tampa Bay’s two first-period goals both came on the man advantage too and included the pretty much inevitable Steven Stamkos goal from an extremely bad angle. Alexander Killorn also scored on the power play about three minutes later. In fact, the first period was a penalty festival and had two fights–Gregory Campbell against Keith Aulie and Adam McQuaid versus Pierre-Cedric Labrie. Note that Shawn Thornton was a healthy scratch for this game and replaced by Jay Pandolfo, which meant that Daniel Paille went up to the third line.
There were so many boarding calls–not all of them completely warranted or merited–in the first and second periods that it may have made the Bruins afraid to execute big hits, lest they be called penalties.
Finally, on Tampa Bay’s fourth penalty of the game, something happened. The Bruins scored a power play goal from none other than Tyler Seguin, his fourth goal of the season. It’s been a while since Boston scored a power play goal at home. In fact, they’re the last team to do so at all this season. The last time a Bruin scored on the man advantage at home was April 21, 2012 in the quarterfinal series against the Washington Capitals. That was Johnny Boychuk.
But a minute and 17 seconds later, the Bruins knotted up the game on an even-strength goal. Rich Peverley was responsible for this one and he scored it from basically the same bad angle as Stamkos.
There were times when it looked pretty dicey for the home team: a four-minute penalty to Andrew Ference, for example, but the Bruins’ excellent penalty kill came back after that lapse in the first period and killed that off efficiently. A different four-minute penalty, this one to Brendan Mikkelson, gave Brad Marchand what he needed to put up his 11th goal of the season. It was a goal so electrifying that team president Cam Neely was fist-pumping in the VIP box.
Spring 2012 was also the most recent multiple power play goal game at home for Boston–that was March 19 against the Toronto Maple Leafs and Marchand had one of the tallies then too.
He credited his linemates with providing the help he needs to lead the team in scoring. Special thanks should go to Patrice Bergeron, who provided the only assist on that go-ahead goal and led all forwards in time on ice with about 22 minutes out there. (NESN named him the star of the game.) But that whole line works hard and it’s always good to see them excelling.
Two guys who haven’t scored much this season, Seguin and Peverley, scored in this game. Coach Claude Julien made a note of it and also said he hopes for even more goal-scoring.
With this win, the Bruins have taken over first place in the Northeast Division and, in fact, first in the entire Eastern Conference. This despite the fact that they have still played the fewest games of any Eastern team. The Montreal Canadiens could possibly retake first later tonight, but then the best rivalry in hockey will face off again tomorrow night when the Bruins and Habs meet. It’s going to be a huge game in every way.
Emma Harger is an NHL writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow her on Twitter, like her on Facebook and add her to your network on Google.
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