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| Brad Marchand celebrates after scoring his 19th goal of the season in the Bruins 3-1 victory over the red-hot Flames Tuesday night in Calgary. |
If the new-look Boston Bruins continue to play like they did Tuesday night in Calgary, GM Peter Chiarelli will get more than his fair share of votes for NHL Executive of the Year.
Unveiling all three of their newest acquisitions for the first time, the Bruins waltzed into one of the toughest buildings in hockey and took down one of the NHL's hottest teams, playing a spirited and complete sixty minutes on the road to defeat the red-hot Flames 3-1. Coming into the game, Calgary had gone 11-1-2 in their previous 14 contests and a staggering 7-0-2 in their last nine home games. In addition, they were fresh off the emotional high of beating Montreal 4-0 in the Heritage Classic Sunday afternoon in their own backyard.
Pacing the victory, Milan Lucic scored the first and last goals of the game, including an empty-netter to seal the victory for Boston with just 47 seconds left in the third period. Brad Marchand added his 19th goal of the season while David Krejci pitched in with two assists. In net, Tim Thomas finished with 28 saves and made some timely stops when he needed to most, especially in the final minutes of regulation when Calgary was desperate and pouring on the pressure.
With the victory, the Bruins are now 3-0-0 on their pivotal six game road trip and head into Saturday night's heavyweight tussle against the NHL-best Vancouver Canucks with a full head of steam and a reinvigorated starting goaltender.
"My legs definitely felt fresher than they had in a little while," admitted Thomas, who started in net for the first time in over a week after being overworked for much of the season. "I think that decision paid off for both of us."
With the win, Thomas improves his overall record to an absurd 27-8-6 while also lowering his league leading goals against average to a microscopic 1.99.
"That's why he's on top of all categories for goalies in the NHL," Lucic remarked after the game. "He's a gamer. He comes to play every night."
Setting the tone early, the Bruins grabbed the momentum and quickly raced out to a 1-0 lead just 59 seconds into the game. Taking full advantage of a poor line change by Calgary, Krejci attacked the Flames' zone with speed and then dished a beautiful cross-ice pass right onto the tape of a streaking Lucic who proceeded to bury the puck past Mikka Kiprusoff for his 25th goal of the season.
"I think we gave them a little too much respect off the hop," admitted Calgary's Curtis Glencross.
Then, after a scoreless second period, the Bruins extended the lead to 2-0 with just under six minutes gone in the final stanza. Capitalizing on the relentless forecheck of Patrice Bergeron down low, the Bruins were able to cycle the puck back to Andrew Ference at the point. And although Ference's low slapped didn't make its way to the net, it deflected off of Bergeron's right skate directly to Marchard in the slot who fired the rebound past the helpless Kiprusoff.
The Bruins continued to dictate the play until Bergeron was called for an ill-advised slashing penalty on Anton Babchuk with just over three minutes remaining in regulation. Almost on cue, the Flames cut the deficit to 2-1 on the power play when superstar Jarome Iginla executed a give-and-go in close to perfection, setting up Glencross for his 20th goal of the season.
After being silenced all night, the sell-out crowd of 19,289 at the Scotiabank Saddledome instantly rose to their feet and began cheering "Go Flames Go" in deafening unison.
With time winding down, the Flames pulled Kiprusoff with just over a minute to go. However, the Bruins made sure Calgary's comeback fell short as Krejci lofted a beautiful outlet feed to Lucic who tapped home the puck into the empty net for his 26th goal of the season.
The goal was a fitting way to end the game as it was the first line of Krejci centering Lucic and Nathan Horton that gave Calgary fits all night.
"Our game kind of fell off in January because we weren't making smart plays," explained Lucic. "We were coughing up pucks, weren't moving like we usually do. These last couple of games we're skating again, we're strong on the puck and we're winning battles. If we want to be an effective line, that's what we need to do."
Recent acquisition Rich Peverley made his debut for Boston as well, playing the wing on the third line with fellow newcomer Chris Kelly and Michael Ryder. Peverley didn't look a bit out of place and managed to win some key faceoffs late in the game. Boston's biggest acquisition, Tomas Kaberle, saw extended minutes on the power play and led all Bruins in time on ice with 22:51, some three seconds more than captain Zdeno Chara.
Interestingly, the Bruins last road win against the Flames came way back on October 18, 1997. Since then they had gone 0-4-1 in Calgary before finally breaking through for the victory Tuesday night out West.
Even though it's early, all signs point to the new-look Bruins as a serious force to be reckoned with.
Mr. Chiarelli deserves a round of applause.
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