Boston Bruins defeat Florida Panthers in shootout 3-2 – NHL Update
Boston Bruins' goalie, Tuukka Rask, was slightly better than his Florida Panthers’ counterpart, Scott Clemmensen, who failed to save one shootout goal, as Bruins edged past Panthers by 3-2, in the National Hockey League (NHL) game on Monday, January 16,
2012, at the BankAtlantic Center in Florida.
Rask made 38 saves, while Clemmensen made 33 to force the game to the shootout, in which the latter missed just one shot, and paid the price, for which he was disappointed and commented after the game:
"We were right there. It's always tough when you lose no matter how you look at it. You can say, 'Wow, we got a point from the defending champs, a much-needed point', but at the same time, we want to win. We expect to win every game. We gave ourselves a
chance to win tonight".
The goalies dominated the game and no scoring move was made during the final and extra period.
The Bruins did manage an early goal, but found it difficult to score the next one.
At 1:20 in the first period, Benoit Pouliot and Tyler Seguin set up Patrice Bergeron, who scored his 13th goal of the season, standing at least 50 feet (58 to be exact) away from the goalie.
The rest of the period went scoreless.
Panthers finally managed to equalise in the second period when a slap-shot from Jason Garrison bounced off Bruins' defenseman, Dennis Seidenberg, and entered the net.
At 12:42, Florida’s Tomas Fleischmann was sent off for two minutes.
The shorthanded Panthers received another blow a minute later when Shawn Matthias was penalised with another minor penalty.
Taking advantage of the power-play, when the Panthers were two-man short, Garrison tipped a pass from Seguin into the net to once again put Boston in the lead.
Garrison was appreciated by coach, Claude Julien, who praised the player by saying:
“He was by far the best player, no doubt about it … the way he competed, even his back-checking. He's always the first one back. You understand why at the end of the game he's exhausted because he leaves it all out on the ice. Right now we need more of those
kind of guys".
Matthias was one of the two men who were penalised and provided an opportunity for the Bruins to score.
He compensated by providing an equaliser to the Panthers.
At 15:54, Tomas Kopecky sent a long pass to Matthias, who fired a wrist-shot into the net for Florida’s second of the game.
Both the teams struggled to score in the third period and the game eventually went into overtime.
The extra period went scoreless as well and the game progressed to the shootout.
Panthers were the first ones to score in the shootout after missing two chances, while Bruins also replied by scoring a goal and staying head-to-head with their opponents.
Mikael Samuelsson came in next for the Panthers, firing a shot, but missed it. The Bruins had an opportunity and they were not going to miss it again.
David Krejci stepped up and scored on his turn to end the shootout, 2-1, in favour of the Bruins.
The Bruins are now going to face Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday, while the Panthers will take on Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday.
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