*Photo from the Boston Globe*
There were some questions about who would plug certain holes on the Boston Bruins roster with the departures of Zedeno Chara and Torey Krug in free agency. For at least one game, all is well in Boston. Brad Marchand scored two goals, Tuukka Rask stopped 20 shots, and the Bruins beat the New Jersey Devils with a 3-2 shootout victory Thursday night. Both of Boston's regulation goals came on the power play.
Marchand got the scoring started 17:40 into the game, snapping home a power play goal in front of the net to put Boston ahead 1-0. It remained that way until 8:51 into the 3rd period, when Miles Wood scored on a breakaway goal for the Devils, tying the game at one. At 13:52 of the 3rd, Nick Ritchie converted on the power play for the Bruins, making it 2-1. That lead lasted for 34 seconds, as Ty Smith scored on a tumbling puck that went off Bruins defensemen Jeremy Lauzon and into the net, tying it at two. In the 3rd round of the shooutout, Marchand beat Devils goalie Mackenzie Blackwood to his right, making it 3-2 and clinching the win.
Blackwood, who stopped 35 of 37 shots, talked about the Devils effort postgame, saying that "I think it got better and better as the game went on. It's a new structure for everyone, we're just trying to learn it. We did a good job with our first real game and that structure, so we just have a lot to build on, a lot to keep working on, but it was good."
Devils coach Lindy Ruff elaborated on that, saying that "If you look at the first period, the way we played for me, we looked nervous, we looked tight, it looked like we hadn't played in ten months and Mackenzie stood tall for us, obviously to give us a chance in the second and third. I thought our game really came around in the last couple periods and overtime."
Rask came up with some huge breakaway stops for the Bruins in overtime to force a shootout, one on Kyle Palmieri and another on Jack Hughes. Marchand said of Rask's performance that "Tuukka is one of the best goalies in the league. He's the backbone of our team. Every great team has a great goalie. That's what we need out of him if we want to go all the way this year. We need him to be big and he was tonight. That's what he does. Even when the game gets a little rough for us, he's calm. When you see that out of your goalie, when he's making that big save, it allows you to kind of calm down and get back on track. We had that tonight."
Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy addressed the shootout performance, saying that "The shootout was a problem for us last year. Hopefully we can be better. We were tonight. We let a lead get away in the third period and that's not a road we want to go down. We had a bit of that stuff happen to us last year. I know it was only a one-goal lead, but we've got to play winning hockey and I don't think we did in the third, at times, can't get away with it against any team. Good teaching moment for us. To still be able to get the two points was nice."
These two teams meet again Saturday afternoon, with Blackwood expected to start again for the Devils. The Bruins will give veteran backup Jaroslav Halak the nod for the second game of the season.
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