Ducks Outlast Bruins in Anaheim (10/10/07)

After splitting the first two games of the season, the Boston Bruins then had to travel to Anaheim to play the defending Stanley Cup champion Ducks. The Bruins did the best they could but the Ducks are champs for a reason. Chuck Kobasew scored in the first period but Ryan Getzlaf tied it in the second period. Bruins goalie Tim Thomas and Ducks goalie Ilya Bryzgalov were locked in a goalie duel until deep in the third period. Francois Beauchemin took a dish from Shane Hnidy and put it past Thomas with just 6:25 left in the game. The suffocating Ducks defense led by Chris Pronger, old friend Sean O'Donnell, Hnidy and others held the Bruins to just 19 shots in the entire game. It all added up as the champs beat the Bruins 2-1 at the Honda Center.

                                                                  This sucks

Peter Schaefer peppered Ila Bryzgalov a minute into the first period to try to set the tone but the puck was saved. Then Chuck Kobasew broke loose for a partial breakaway on a pass from Glen Metropolit and he stuffed it to put the Bruins up less than two minutes into the game. Thomas survived a powerful slapshot from Chris Pronger shortly after. With 10 minutes left in the first, Travis Moan stripped Dennis Wideman of the puck and fired one past Thomas....off the post, Bruins got lucky there. Nothing happened the rest of the period and the Bruins went into intermission up 1-0.

Metropolit got called for hooking to send the Bruins to the Penalty Kill just 83 seconds into the second period. The Bruins killed it off and Thomas robbed Shane Hnidy with ten minutes left in the period. The Bruins caught a break when Pronger was called for tripping 10 minutes into the period but just twenty seconds later Peter Schaefer got called for high sticking. In the ensuing 4 on 4, Kent Huskins fired one off Thomas to knock him down and Ryan Getzalf just happened to be standing there to knock it in to tie the game with 9:09 remaining in the period. Aaron Ward got called for tripping with 3:15 left in the second to put the Ducks back on the powerplay. Thomas robbed Andy McDonald to kill off the penalty and had to make a save on a Chris Kunitz slapshot to end the period with the game tied 1-1.

The Bruins got the first powerplay of the third period when Kent Huskins went off for hooking 2:22 into it, but Boston failed to score. Chris Kunitz nearly put one past Thomas 6:21 into the period but was turned away. Shane Hnidy went off for holding 9:25 into the period but once again the Bruins powerplay couldn't capitalize. Francois Beauchemin took a feed from Hnidy and almost put it in but Thomas covered it for the faceoff. Right on cue Getzlaf won the faceoff back to Hnidy who dished it to Beauchemin for the one timer goal with 6:25 remaining in the game. The Bruins had a great chance to tie the game when Patrice Bergeron found Marco Sturm in front of the net but Bryzgalov stoned Sturm cold with 3:28 remaining. With one minute remaining Milan Lucic blasted one off of Bryzgalov who covered it up JUST as Kobasew was streaking in front of him. One half second earlier Kobasew might have scored to tie the game. Instead the Ducks held on to win the game 2-1.

Reaction:

Even though the Ducks were without Scott Niedermayer they still played suffocating defense that surrendered just one goal against the Bruins. Tim Thomas did the best he could stopping 28 of 30 shots but the Ducks defense held the Bruins to just 19 shots on net. That's the kind of defense Julien loves and hopefully the Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli is looking out for when the trade deadline comes. The Ducks are looking to repeat but the Bruins gave them all they could handle. It would have been nice if Kobasew had beaten Bryzgalov to that puck at the end but it wasn't meant to be. The Bruins continue their west coast trip this Friday night when they travel to Los Angeles to play the Kings. That might be a good game.