The Bruins were outshot 29-16, and it took them over 65 minutes of play, but prevailed to take out the Minnesota Wild in a lackluster performance at the Xcel Energy Center last night.
Byron Bitz scored the lone Bruins goal in regulation, and David Krejci undressed Minnesota net-minder Niklas Backstrom with the game-winning goal in the shootout, as the Bruins defeated the Wild, 2-1, in extra minutes.
"Well it certainly wasn't the prettiest game, I don't think we played very well tonight" said Coach Julien after the game, "we'll take the two points".
The story of the night was none other than Tuukka Rask. Rask started in his fifth consecutive contest -- with Tim Thomas sidelined with an apparent broken right hand -- and stopped 28 of 29 shots he faced last night, and has now gone 4-1-0 during that span.
Rask was clearly the best player with a spoked "B" on his chest last night, and has now improved his back-up numbers to 7-2-1 on the season, with a .924 save-percentage (5th in the NHL) and a 2.13 goals-against average (2nd overall).
"There's nothing you can say negative about his game at all" Julien added.
Despite their first period goal, the Bruins were outshot 11-2 in the first, and came out flat with hardly any energy or pep-in-their-step at all.
Bruins center Marc Savard said, "We were a little gassed tonight...but we got the results we wanted"
The Wild did a great job with helping out Backstrom between the pipes by blocking 23 shots that came their way, and the Bruins didn't help their own cause by missing 13 shots on the night.
The Bruins have now improved their record to 12-8-4 on the year -- climbing atop the Northeast Division with 28 points -- and third overall in the Eastern Conference, but perhaps with a major expense.
Milan Lucic left the game in the third period with an apparent left knee injury. Now while I missed the train to medical school, the injury -- especially in slow motion -- looked quite ugly. The B's will head home for the holiday's before their matinee match-up against the New Jersey Devils on Friday at noon, so hopefully we'll have some optimistic news from now 'til then.
After going 3-for-9 on the power play in their last three road games, Boston hit the wall last night by going 0-for-4 with the man advantage against the Wild.
Foolish penalties continue to haunt the black and gold as they committed another six minor penalties -- five within the first 32 minutes of action -- yet killed five of their six times short.
Aside from Rask, one bright spot really popped-out at me, and it happened on the Bruins' lone goal in the first period.
It was so simple and a back-to-basics type of play. Marc Savard successfully won the face-off draw, off the boards to Derek Morris. Morris slapped the puck, with Byron Bitz crashing in front of the net, for the tip-in. Good things happen when things remain simple and players crowd the net.
Last year at this time, the Bruins went on to win 15 of their next 16 games after Thanksgiving Day. Here's to the Bruins putting this game behind them, in spite of the win, and play with the same focus and energy as their three games prior to another historic run.
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