NHL Update: Boston Bruins clipped Carolina Panthers, 3-2
Tim Thomas turned aside 43-of-45 shots and Milan Lucic scored the game-winning goal, as Boston Bruins edged Carolina Panthers, 3-2, at RBC Centre on Tuesday night.
Johnny Boychuk and Brad Marchand also lit the lamp for Boston, which won 7-0 at home on Monday and has taken five games of six overall. Mark Recchi earned two assists for the winners.
Jussi Jokinen and Chad LaRose tallied goals for Carolina, which showed more spirit and better play than in that blowout drop but has lost three contests of four. Cam Ward was dented for all
three goals on 28 shots in defeat.
“I still like this team,” Carolina coach Paul Maurice said. “I think they’re learning their lessons as they go.”
Jokinen was sent off for tripping only 17 seconds into the opening period. Boston made him pay in third minute when Boychuk wound up from the right point and fired a slap shot from the blue
line past Ward and inside the left post.
Jokinen pulled Panthers even at 1-1 on a power-play with 1 ½ minute remaining in the opening period. The play was set up by Eric Staal, who slipped a pass through the crease that Jokinen
powered in from the left side.
“We didn’t get the results that we wanted, but our compete level was there and we were all over them in the second period and couldn’t find a way to get the puck to the back of the net,”
captain Eric Staal said.
Both goaltenders saved all the shots they faced in the middle period. Both teams had multiple quality opportunities, rushes, and close calls but it stayed a 1-1 play-off. Thanks to the acrobatics
of Thomas and Ward.
“When they started to add up in the second, I was aware, because physically, I could feel it,” said Thomas. “I was like, ‘Whoa, this is a lot of shots.”’
Bruins’ goalie made 19 saves and Panthers’ netminder needed to stop nine shots in a goal-less middle 20 minutes.
"It was probably our best first two periods in a while," said Paul Maurice. "You give up seven goals, your defence is going to tighten up. I thought by the third we were starting to feel
it, but we just didn't have enough in the tank."
Marchand staked Bruins ahead with 2-1 lead in fourth minute of the final stanza, as he backhanded a rebound of Zdeno Chara's left-point shot past Panthers netminder.
LaRose tied the game at 2-2 midway through the third period when he controlled a loose puck tapped it past Thomas.
However, Lucic put Bruins ahead with one-goal advantage 3-2 once again, with eight minutes to play in the third period. It happened so when Recchi brought the puck down the left-wing side
near the boards, and seemed to want to rush around the net, but threw the disc into the slot where Lucic one-timed a shot home.
Ward was pulled two times in the last 90 seconds, but Panthers could not tie the game again.
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