Bruins come back to beat Senators in second game of back-to-back

OTTAWA — As dominant as the Bruins were in Montreal the night before, even with few shots, they didn’t bring that same energy to Ottawa the next day.

Despite a listless start, the Bruins scored two straight in the third period to top the Senators 2-1 and sweep their eastern Canadian back-to-back. In one of their more abysmal offensive efforts overall, they still pulled out the win to keep alive their nine-game point streak alive.

With just three shots after the first period, and 10 after two, the Bruins played like a team that had played the night before in another city. The Senators weren’t as sluggish, but Tuukka Rask held them at bay for a scoreless first two frames.

It was the second straight night where a Bruins goalie stood on their head, after Jaroslav Halak turned in a casual 36-save performance the night before in an 8-1 win; it was a bit more pressure for Rask, in a game where the Bruins offense didn’t show until late.

The Senators went ahead early in the third period but the Bruins responded with two goals in the span of three minutes to steal two points in a game that was far from their most inspired effort.

After no scoring the first two periods, Ottawa struck quickly in the third to take the first lead.

On one end of the ice, Anders Bjork collapsed into the Ottawa net after trying to slide a pass to Chris Wagner on a 2-on-1, and down the other, Thomas Chabot beat Brandon Carlo and fired a shot past Rask on the far-side to get the Sens a 1-0 lead just 41 seconds into the third.

Brad Marchand, as he’s done many times, quickly answered.

Bjork cycled along the wall and found Marchand streaking down the slot with 14:45 to go in the third, and he potted his 18th goal of the season to make it a 1-1 game.

Sean Kuraly notched the secondary assist, the night after picking up three helpers in Montreal the night before.

Three minutes later, the Bruins went ahead with some handy work from one of their newest skaters.

In his Bruins season debut, Brendan Gaunce spun a backhand pass from the edge of the hashmarks just underneath the blue line, where former Senators defenseman Zdeno Chara blasted his fifth goal of the season to put the Bruins ahead 2-1 on their 19th shot of the game.

Wagner took a cross-checking penalty right after, but the Senators league-low power play couldn’t do any damage to knot things back up.

Rask made 33 saves to keep the Bruins in it while they worked to find their legs, which took until the third period.

The Bruins get American Thanksgiving off before they face the Rangers at home on Friday in a Black Friday matinee to finish their three-games-in-four days, which, with the afternoon game up next, is three contests in less than 72 hours overall.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/34tdlaf