Thursday, November 13, 2008

bruins 2 - blackhawks 1 (SO)

The Bruins collected another 2 points last night, in a spirited affair against the Blackhawks. The two teams entered the game with the same record, and a similar trajectory of being clubs on the rebound after several seasons of ineffectual play. Both clubs have a mix of bright young stars, a few grizzled veterans and, in Khabibulin and Thomas, goaltending that is often spectacular.

Early in the game, Colin Fraser decided to tangle with Zdeno Chara after a crease-side shoving match, and was knocked unconscious by the Bruins captain, with a single, gloved punch. Ouch. Chara went on to have a solid game, keeping forwards to the outside in his own zone, and setting up Marco Sturm's goal for the Bruins lead.

Jonathan Toews scored for the 'Hawks, and the game remained deadlocked (despite some craaaazy chances) through regulation and overtime.

In the shootout, Bruins defensive-expert PJ Alexsson tallied the game winner, in a surprising inside-out-to-top-shelf-backhand that showed an offensive upside seldom seen in this potential Selke Award candidate.

With the win, the Bruins improve to 7-1-0 in their last 8 games. They also retain first place in the Northeast Division, and jump to second overall in the Eastern Conference.

Good times. Now, don't get cocky.

2 comments:

Todd Stewart said...

Any chance Brian Burke comes back to Boston and not toronto?

The Editor said...

yes, there's a LOT of rumour and discussion around this, and I'll be putting up a post in the coming days about it.

thanks for the comment.