The Boston Bruins were able to hold the top spot in the Northeast Division for a mere 23 hours, falling to the New York Islanders tonight at the Garden by a 2-1 score. Josh Bailey tallied both goals for the Isles, and goaltender Evgeni Nabokov stopped 30 of 31 Boston shots en route to the victory. The win brings New York’s record to 8-1-1 in their last ten games, while the Bruins temporarily fall back to fourth place in the East with their second loss in their last four.
In a fashion reminiscent of pre-2011 matchups, the Montreal Canadiens rallied back from a two goal deficit in the third period before eventually winning the shootout on a Brendan Gallagher goal. The Bruins took a 4-2 lead into the second intermission after exploding for four unanswered goals in the middle frame, but once again couldn’t get the job done in the third period. Tuukka Rask took the loss for the Bruins, allowing five goals on 28 shots, and despite gaining a point the B’s relinquish the top spot in the Northeast Division to the Habs once again.
The Boston Bruins took care of the first half of their “revenge weekend” yesterday knocking off the Capitals, but unfortunately couldn’t carry the momentum on to Pittsburgh today, falling to the Penguins by a score of 2-1. Sidney Crosby and Joe Vitale scored for the Pens, while Tyler Seguin had the Bruins’ only goal. The win was Pittsburgh’s ninth in a row, and the second time in a week they were able to down the Bruins at the Consol Energy Center.
For about 50 minutes of last night’s game against the Penguins it seemed like the Boston Bruins just might be able to hold on to a third period 2-0 lead and take two points from one of the top teams in the league, despite clearly not having much energy left after playing into a shootout with Ottawa the night before. Unfortunately the flood gates opened at the 13:42 mark of the third period when Chris Kunitz blasted home a feed from Kris Letang to get the Penguins on the board, and Brandon Sutter added back to back goals in a three and a half minute span to sink the B’s, 3-2. Anton Khudobin played extremely well in goal for the Bruins, who despite the loss remain just a point behind Pittsburgh and Montreal for the top spot in the East, but in the end couldn’t do enough to keep the Pens from roaring back.
For whatever reason the Bruins decided they weren’t going to have a slow or matinee-delayed start today, and for once they came out ready to play against a Flyers team that had lost their last two and was outside of the playoff picture looking in. First period goals by Tyler Seguin, Chris Kelly and Danny Paille propelled the Black and Gold to a 3-0 win over the now 11th place Flyers, while the B’s temporarily jump to first place in the Eastern Conference with 35 points.
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