Boston Bruins hold on to beat Philadelphia Flyers 7-5
Steven Kampfer scored the game-winner late in the final period, as the Boston Bruins trounced the Philadelphia Flyers 7-5, at TD Garden on Thursday night.
Mark Recchi and Zdeno Chara also lit the lamp and had one assist for Boston, who won their third consecutive contest, and are now four points ahead of Montreal in the Northeast Division (55-51).
Patrice Bergeron, Gregory Campbell, Michael Ryder and Brad Marchand also got on the score sheet for the Bruins. Goaltender Tim Thomas gave up five goals on 35 shots, but improved to 20-4-6 on 2010-11 for the Bruins, who notched
five goals in the third period.
Danny Briere and Nikolay Zherdev both recorded a goal and an assist for Philadelphia, whose four-game win streak was snapped by the Bruins. However, the Flyers are still at the top of the Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference
with 59 points.
Jeff Carter and Sean O'Donnell also registered a goal, while Brian Boucher was dented for a season-high six goals on 36 shots in loss. Scott Hartnell added another goal for the Flyers.
Philadelphia took just three and a half minutes in the opening period time to take a 1-0 lead. Hartnell gained a rebound and batted a shot from the goal line to the right of Boston goalie Thomas. It hit the far post and sprang
into the net.
An excited Thomas, in a post-match interview, said, “Yes, that was a roller coaster. Sometimes the best laid plans don't work out that way, and you got to roll with the punches and we did a good job with that
Boston tied the game at 1-1 with one and a half minutes left in the first period. The goal came when Boston had a 5-on-3 advantage for more than a minute, and after a wild scramble in front of the net. The puck eventually fell
to Marc Savard, who slipped a pass to Chara, who fired a blistering one-timer into the net.
Boston snapped the tie to take a 2-1 lead just 45 seconds into the middle period. Bergeron floated a wrist shot from the blue line, which deflected through off the crowd of players in front of the net and sailed past Boucher.
The Flyers tied it with four and a half minutes left in the second period. Andreas Nodl managed to send a long pass up the middle to Zherdev, who faked to the backhand and beat the Bruins netminder on a breakaway.
Philadelphia then took a 3-2 lead with 35 seconds left in the second period, as Carter banged a shot from the left circle to beat goalie.
The Bruins equalised the game again at 3-3 by scoring inside 40 seconds of the third period. Chara cleared the puck in from centre ice, and it rebounded in front of the net after hitting the back boards, allowing Recchi to tap
home.
Boston broke the deadlock again in the second minute of the third period. Adam McQuaid dished the puck at the right post where Ryder deflected it into the net, to give the Bruins a 4-3 lead.
It did not take much time for the Flyers to tie the game again, as Braydon Coburn skated in front of the net and ripped a shot, but it was blocked. However, Briere collected the rebound and blasted a shot into an open net five
minutes later, to make the score 4-all.
O’Donnell then put Flyers ahead by 5-4 less than a minute later. Mike Richards turned on the right side and gave a cross-ice pass to O'Donnell, who beat Thomas glove side.
Patrice Bergeron was pleased with his team’s overall performance. He said, "Yeah, for sure I thought we stayed composed all game. We didn't panic when they took a one-goal lead, they actually did it twice, so it's something
that we need to build from and learn from and it was a fun game to be a part of but I thought it was a real good effort."
Less than four minutes after Philadelphia took the lead for the final time, Brad Marchand received a pass from Campbell, and launched a 40-footer shot just under the crossbar to tie the game at 5-5.
Boston then failed to take the lead off a power-play with four and a half minutes remaining in the game. However, the Bruins did manage to get ahead 6-5, with almost a minute left in the final period. Kampfer collected in a
failed clearance at the edge of the right circle and slapped a shot that settled high and inside the left post.
"I didn't see it," Boucher said about the game-deciding tally. "I was covering low because we had a guy skate through, and he shot it, when the guy was skating through and I didn't pick it up."
Boucher was pulled two times in the final 70 seconds, and Campbell added an empty-net goal to finish off the frenetic win at 7-5.
Tags: