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Krejci For Two: Bruins handle Carolina in OT

November 23, 2013, 5:11 PM ET [11 Comments]
Ty Anderson
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Without a shot on goal for over 23 minutes at one point, the Carolina Hurricanes did everything they could to give this game to the Boston Bruins, and eventual did when David Krejci’s overtime marker downed the ‘Canes by a 3-2 final in a Saturday afternoon matinee affair at TD Garden.

For Carolina, things could have -- and should have, been better. Period.

The B’s were less than 48 hours removed from their hard fought shootout loss to the St. Louis Blues, were returning to the ice for an always unfriendly 1 p.m. matinee, and with Chad Johnson in net and the Carolina Hurricanes in town, today’s affair had ‘trap game’ written all over it. Factor in the fact that this was a game sandwiched between contests against the aforementioned Blues and a Monday night battle with the Penguins, and then the words trap game became capitalized across the board for a B’s squad with six wins in their last nine games.

And despite an early shot advantage of 6-0 in favor of the Black-and-Gold, a power-play goal from Andrej Sekera just 5:53 into the first period, good for Sekera’s fifth of the season, sold a frustrated Garden crowd on that idea.

But with a double-minor penalty to the Hurricanes’ Manny Malhotra for high-sticking David Krejci, the Boston power-play went to work. Cycling around the aggressive penalty-kill of a Carolina squad looking to snap a three-game losing skid, a rebound off a Milan Lucic drive gave the 6-foot-9 obstacle in front of the net, B’s captain Zdeno Chara, ample time and space to bury his team-leading fourth power-play marker of the season.

Bringing the Bruins and Canes to a 1-1 tie, the tally proved to be the confidence booster that Claude Julien’s squad needed given their early period misfortunes.

Simply peppering Cam Ward from there on out, the Bruins took the lead 13:31 into the middle frame behind Reilly Smith’s fourth goal of the year. Good for a new career high for the 22-year-old forward, who had three goals in 37 games with the Dallas Stars last year, it was enough to give the dominating Bruins a 2-1 edge through two periods of play in the Hub.

Through 40 minutes, this looked like a complete nightmare for Kirk Muller and company. His ‘Canes had just 10 shots on goal in two periods of play, were being badly outplayed in their own zone, and looked like a borderline AHL team against the Bruins.

“Well we had a lot of pucks going up the boards and they’re a bigger, stronger team than we are and we wanted to keep pucks away from there and get more footraces and that. Give them credit, they came and kept a tight gap, their D pinched so they played a real aggressive thing that we weren’t able to penetrate up the boards from them,” Muller said after the game when pressed about the middle frame lapses. “That’s their strength and they used it on us so we just had to stay in the game and keep them on the perimeter on our zone so we can kind of get a little bit more of our skating legs going and try to create some races, but they’re a good team. You got to give them credit where credit is due. They played to their strengths and kept us hemmed in more than we wanted to.”

Yet, the Bruins weren’t intent on burying the Hurricanes.

Not from the looks of their third period, anyways.

Surrendering 14 shots on goal in the final frame, and failing to capitalize on two power-plays in the period, the Bruins’ lethargic effort was punished with a fitting fate, as a shorthanded breakaway from Carolina’s Patrick Dwyer beat Johnson, tying the B’s and Canes up 2-2 with 8:50 to go.

“We were just trying to get the kill there. It was an untimely too many men on the ice there. To get that break and to get down and to score it is big and to get us back in that hockey game,” said Dwyer. “We came in and we talked and said our backs are against the wall and we have to scratch and claw to get back into this hockey game, and I think we went out there and played pretty well in the third.”

Enough to force the B’s into their second straight overtime contest, a strong drive to the net from Jarome Iginla did its job of creating space for Krejci, who with the patience of a man that’s been there before, roofed home the game-winner, sending the Garden into an afternoon frenzy.

No better time to snap a five-game pointless stretch, right?

A patient Krejci is a dangerous Krejci

I’ll say it ‘til I’m blue in the face, but I refuse to believe that anybody besides David Krejci is the MVP of this Bruins offense. I don’t mean that in 2013-14, but in general. Any year, any time.

When Krejci’s performing at his best, the rest of the offense flows with so much energy and consistency. He’s that kind of a talent. Obviously, players like Patrice Bergeron have a critical role in the forward core of the Bruins (and even saying that may be putting it lightly), but Krejci’s primary focus is to create offense in the attacking zone. When he does that, it’s awfully difficult to stop his line and the rest of the Black-and-Gold for that matter.

Today, in the midst of a five-game pointless drought, and with Milan Lucic accounting for the only goals the line has scored in their past five games, Krejci stepped up to the plate.

With the patience and poise that’s made him a legitimate top liner.

“That’s my game,” Krejci said of his ability to slow the play down on the goal. “I get credit for that but I also get some negative feedback, but when it works everybody’s happy and no one is talking bad about my game, so I’m glad it worked but that’s what I do; I’m not going to change my game.

“We would like to put a puck in the net but when you look at the standings and Boston is in first place, that’s all that matters,” Krejci noted after the win.

Up next

Pending the result of tonight’s contest in Montreal between the Habs and visiting Pittsburgh Penguins, Monday night’s matchup at the Garden between the Bruins and Penguins has the chance to represent a winner take first place in the Eastern Conference game. Pittsburgh won the previous meeting between the two back on Oct. 30, while the B’s will enter the play with seven wins and 16 points (of a possible 20) in their last 10 contests.
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