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Boston winger Brad Marchand ran out of time on a would-be buzzer-beater at the end of the first period, denying the 5-foot-9 pest his 14th of the season when time clearly ran out on his snipe that beat the Los Angeles Kings’ Jonathan Quick. But with the puck back on his stick in the second period, No. 63 made it count, opening up the scoring in a physical 3-1 win over the reigning Stanley Cup champions.
“Any time you’re in a battle, and it ends up in a goal, you always feel good about yourself and about your teammates,… Marchand, who scored the B’s first and third (empty-netter) goals of the night, said after the win. “You know you did your job, so it was nice that we all put in the work, and it ended up in a goal.…
Marchand’s strike, 17:20 into the second period, would serve as the game’s only goal until 13 minutes into the third period, when Jordan Nolan took a low percentage chance from along the walls, and beat Rask for his second goal of the season. The goal, Nolan’s first since Nov. 29, put the Kings and Bruins at a 1-1 draw with just seven minutes ago, something that the B’s were more than game for.
And just 93 seconds later, the Bruins jumped back on top, with Chris Kelly tipping one by Quick.
It’s a night and day comparison to where this team was at upstairs a little more than a month ago, and what a jolt of confidence throughout the lineup, can do for a 20-man roster.
“I think when you’re not winning and you see those kinds of goals go in, it is discouraging and you can feel it,… Boston coach Claude Julien admitted. “But when they scored that goal and I looked up at the clock and there were seven minutes left, all I could hear from the guys was ‘let’s go get it back, let’s not waste any time here,’ and there was some determination. And you know, it paid off.…
The Bruins finished their strong showing off with a great shutdown of a star-studded Los Angeles six, and with Marchand putting the dagger in by way of perhaps the longest empty-net goal of his career.
A goal’s a goal, and a win’s a win, and the Bruins, with 19 of a possible 24 points this month, are rolling.
“We knew how important this month was to get ourselves back into the picture and we did just that, winning eight out of twelve games and getting much needed points and moving up the standings,… said Milan Lucic. “It’s a great January and we’re happy the way that we played, and the mindset has to be that we need to carry this on to February. Obviously we got a big road trip coming up and it doesn’t get any easier from here on in. We’ve got to bring our best night-in, night-out and play our best when it matters the most.…
It was another night where Boston’s top-notch goaltending came to the party, too, with Tuukka Rask stopping all but one of the Kings’ 31 shots on net, earning his 22nd win of the season.
“You ride a goaltender that’s hot as much as you can without you know doing some damage,… Julien said of his netminder. “But again, he made some huge saves at some opportune times. But so did the other guy at the other end. So you know it was a good goaltender duel tonight and a good battle overall from two teams.…
With the win, the Bruins jumped back into control of the first wild card spot by a single point, and now have a nine-point lead on the Florida Panthers, the closest team on the outside looking in in the Eastern Conference.
Random thoughts and notes
- Here’s a lengthy headline no B’s fan wanted to read this year-- Loui Eriksson leaves the game after getting hit hard into the boards. But that’s exactly what happened late in the game after the veteran Swede took a hard hit from Robyn Regehr before being helped off the ice by Danny Paille.
There’s a natural concern when it comes to Eriksson’s head after the 29-year-old missed 20 games with concussion woes last season, but Julien seemed to slightly put that notion down, noting that Eriksson was suffering a ‘stiff neck’ on his way off the ice.
Eriksson has 11 goals and 29 points this season.
- Milan Lucic’s pick for the Super Bowl? He likes the Patriots by a touchdown (though he admitted that he thinks it could be a three-point game), and thinks that Rob Gronkowski will be the game’s MVP.
Up next
The Black and Gold are off until Wednesday, when they’ll head to Madison Square Garden for a showdown with the New York Rangers. It will be the B’s first 2014-15 trip to New York City, and first showdown between the two since the Bruins downed the Rangers by a 3-0 in Boston back on Jan. 15.
Ty Anderson has been covering the Boston Bruins for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, is a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com