Wednesday night in Boston, with the Ottawa Senators leading the series two games to one, the Boston Bruins stepped out on to home ice hoping to head back to Ottawa with the series tied.
Things were not to be for the Bruins though, and they were shut out by the Senators.
The first period, the two teams seemed fairly matched with the Bruins managing fourteen shots on goal to the Senators twelve. The Bruins took the only penalty in this period, when Kevan Miller was flagged for holding Mike Hoffman.
The score at the first break, however, remained 0-0.
The second period, the shots on goal were five shots each, and both teams took one penalty each too. First, Alexandre Burrows sat two minutes for interference against Collin Miller, and much later in the period Dominic Moore received two minutes for hold Erik Karlsson.
The Bruins thought they were a goal up after just over ten minutes of the period, however when Guy Boucher challenged it, it was determined that the Bruins were offside and Noel Acciari’s goal was disallowed.
“Obviously it’s disappointing when those things happen,” said Bruce Cassidy – Bruins coach. “We had a tough time scoring, it was a low-scoring game. But the guys on the bench were good. They said, ‘Listen, let’s be resilient here.’ So I don’t think it was a huge factor in the game. It might’ve given them a bit of a life thinking they got a break, but for us, I don’t think it deterred us from what we wanted to do.”
The second period ended, and the score still remained 0-0.
Finally, after over five minutes of the third period, Derick Brassard with Karlsson took the puck in to the Bruins zone, and with Bobby Ryan heading to the goal the three of them started to hound Tuukka Rask. With the puck out past the face off circle, Brassard passed to Karlsson, who faked a shot and slapped a pass to Ryan just off to one side of the goal. With Rask blocking what he thought was going to be a shot, it left the side open for Ryan to knock it in behind the netminder.
After the game, Ryan said. “I’m trying to focus on contributing now and be in the moment with it. So far, so good. There are a lot of guys in here that are going to contribute in some way down the stretch, and right now the pucks are going in for me, and that could shift. But I’ll take it.”
While modestly speaking of himself, Ryan was full of praise for team mate Karlsson, “He’s our best player, and arguably the best player in the world, so you know every night he’s going to break open the game somehow, either shooting or making plays like he did tonight.”
As the game drew on, Rask left the Bruins goal to get an extra attacker on, leaving an empty net for 1:42, after stopping a total of twenty six shots.
The final buzzer went, earning Craig Anderson a shut out following his twenty two saves throughout the game, resulting in a 1-0 win for the Senators and allowing them to return home three one up in the series, meaning one more win sees them advance, leaving the Bruins knocked out of the competition.
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