With all eyes in the NHL on Chicago Blackhawks rookie Connor Bedard going into the season, a lot of rookies got overlooked. One of them was Boston Bruins 19 year old center Matthew Poitras. As it stands right now Poitras has more goals on the season then Bedard, one of them was a big one in tonight's game. Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman and Blackhawks goalie Peter Mrazek stayed tough in the first period although the key of the game was the Bruins' eye in the sky getting a Bedard goal wiped out due to being offsides. The Bruins struck first in the second period when Pavel Zacha tipped in a Kevin Shattenkirk shot to put Boston on top. In the third, Matthew Poitras skated past the entire Blackhawks team and scored on a backhand goal to essentially ice it. Trent Frederic scored just a minute later and the Bruins defense went hunting for the goose egg. Swayman stopped all 21 shots as the Bruins shutout the Blackhawks 3-0 at the United Center.
The Bruins almost struck first 2 minutes into the period when Kevin Shattenkirk passed it to Matthew Poitras but Blackhawks goalie Peter Mrazek stopped the shot. The Bruins got the first powerplay four minutes into the period when Kevin Korchinski held Morgan Geekie when Morgan was shooting at the net. Mrazek stopped Charlie McAvoy on one attempt and the Blackhawks killed it off. Jakub Lauko then got called for tripping old friend Nick Foligno and Chicago went on the powerplay. It looked like Bedard scored on a horrific turnover by Charlie Coyle but eagle eyed Bruins coach Jim Montgomery challenged the play was offsides. Sure enough, it WAS off-sides and the goal was disallowed. To add insult to injury, Tyler Johnson hooked Coyle a minute after the goal was called off to negate the powerplay. The Bruins failed to score although the Blackhawks had the advantage going into the second period when Trent Frederic hooked Andreas Athanasiou with 24 seconds left in the period. The game remained tied 0-0 going into break.
The Bruins killed off the penalty to open the second period despite a big scoring chance by Bedard then old friend Ryan Donato once the powerplay ended. James van Riemsdyk got robbed by Mrazek four minutes into the period. A few seconds later Frederic fed Coyle in front but Mrazek made the save. Then 3:50 into the period Kevin Shattenkirk fired on net and the puck deflected off Pavel Zacha's stick and in for his first goal of the season to give the Bruins the lead. Chicago got a powerplay when McAvoy got called for holding Foligno but the Hawks failed to score. Swayman made a great save to rob Boris Katchouk then later Katchouk got called for tripping McAvoy with 7:15 left in the period. The Bruins failed to score on the powerplay and with 3:30 left DeBrusk got stripped of the puck by Taylor Raddysh. He passed to Athanasiou who dished to a wide open Lukas Reichel but Swayman made a great save. This time it would be the Bruins on the powerplay to end the period as Seth Jones hooked Zacha with 57 seconds left in the period. The Bruins went into intermission up 1-0.
The Bruins began the third period on the powerplay but failed to score. Ironically ESPN broadcaster Sean McDonough was in the middle of saying that former Bruin Taylor Hall was placed on IR by the Blackhawks this morning when Poitras outskated three Hawks to the puck, broke in on Mrazek and scored to increase the lead. With five minutes gone in the period, Coyle fired on net but Mrazek couldn't control the rebound. JVR passed backwards to a wide open Frederic who buried it to ice the game. Things got scary when Jakub Lauko took a skate to the face and left the ice a bloody mess and things went from scary to chippy with 5 minutes left when perennial Stanley Cup Finals pest Corey Perry got into a donnybrook with Shattenkirk, both getting minor penalties for roughing. The Bruins defense held in the final five minutes and the Bruins earned the goose egg with a 3-0 victory over the Blackhawks.
Goalie hug
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Yes its another win against a bad team on paper but at the same time the Bruins might have something going here. The Bruins lost a ton of offense in the off-season due to retirements plus the salary cap and if Poitras can keep playing like this, that's a load off guys like Marchand and Pastrnak. Speaking of which, this was the first real game where Brad & David did virtually nothing so it was nice to see the others step up. Milan Lucic is still banged up from taking the puck off the foot but it was good to see Derek Forbort make his return. Lauko took a skate right above the eye but according to coach Jim Montgomery, he'll just need stitches. One thing mentioned during the broadcast that the Bruins are going to have a tough time replacing are the faceoff percentages of Tomas Nosek and Patrice Bergeron, especially Bergeron. Poitras may score some goals but winning faceoffs will be important. Once again the defense and goaltending was superb and so far the Bruins remain undefeated at 6-0. The Bruins now return home to face the Anaheim Ducks this Thursday night. The game begins at 7:00 PM at TD Garden.
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