After over two hours of shutout hockey, and on the heels of a 59-save shutout against the San Jose Sharks, the Boston Bruins found a way to flip the script on Ben Scrivens and the Edmonton Oilers, slamming the door on the Edmonton Oilers by a 4-0 afternoon final at TD Garden.
In former Bruin and current Andrew Ference’s first game back in Boston, a B’s attack that was simply embarrassed by the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night wasted no time in taking charge of a matinee affair with the worst team in the Western Conference.
Pummeling nine shots on Scrivens in the opening frame (and attempting 16 in total), the Black-and-Gold thoroughly roughed up the Oil defense while limiting the high-flying Edmonton attack to just two shots (and three attempts) in the opening 20 minutes of play.
With a stranglehold on the pace of play, the B’s needed just over two minutes and a third power play opportunity to make Scrivens and company pay. The Bruins took a 1-0 lead off a David Krejci slapper that deflected off an Oiler and in, good for Krejci’s 12th of the season.
“Right from the start we emphasized being smart and working harder and I thought we did a good job at that I think at limiting them,… B’s defensemen Dougie Hamilton noted. “I thought we played a lot of, I guess, time in their zone so I thought it was a good game for us.…
As Chad Johnson and the Bruins survived two penalty kills -- one to Krejci and the other to Chris Kelly -- skating to the room with a 1-0 edge through two periods seemed like a sure sign for a Boston victory. Given the Oilers’ fail for the dramatic, with just three wins in 32 games this season when trailing after two periods, the chance for a comeback against a B’s defense refusing to give Edmonton space to do much of anything seemed slim at best.
And Scrivens knew that, at least based on his reaction to the Bruins’ second goal of the night, a wraparound scored by Dougie Hamilton just over six minutes in the third period.
“We talked about it before the game, that this team is just going to sit there, they are comfortable in a 0-0 or 1-0 game and if you make a mistake they are going to pounce and then they are going to go back and set up their traps again,… Edmonton coach Dallas Eakins said after the loss. “It’s a credit to Boston how they play, they aren’t the best defensive team in the league for no reason but we’ve got to find a way to get more pucks to the net and more importantly have people that want to go to the net, not being told to go to the net but that want to go there and go to those dirty areas.…
The Bruins added two more goals -- one from Carl Soderberg (his eighth of the year), and then a power play dagger from Torey Krug with 4:18 to go -- while Johnson continued his recent run of success, hanging on for a 22-save shutout (his first of the year and second of his career).
Johnson quietly rolling
Don’t look now, but goaltender Chad Johnson is putting up the numbers that the B’s had hoped for (and expected) when they signed him this past summer.
Johnson without question struggled out of the game in Boston. Whether it was due to a light workload in terms of actual games played or simply not living up to the expectations set by Anton Khudobin’s strong 2012-13 season in a backup role, I’m not sure.
Either way, it doesn’t really matter, ‘cause the 27-year-old is getting it done in the now.
Since his utter meltdown in Buffalo, where he allowed two real bad goals to cost the B’s two points against the league’s worst team, finishing the night with just 19 saves on 23 shots, Johnson’s been near automatic for Boston. In relief, or in a start, again -- it doesn’t matter.
In seven games since that night in Buffalo, Johnson’s 4-1-0 and has posted a .940 save percentage.
“I want to get in as many games as I can,… Johnson admitted after today’s win, giving him 10 on the year. “I know my role, and it’s not to be in every night but it’s to be in when sort of called upon, so it’s nice to be able to get in more games and get in there and get more comfortable and just try and help the team win, so it’s nice playing more often.…
For the B’s, Johnson’s hot streak has come at the perfect time, with the B’s acknowledging the burden of a huge workload both for the B’s and potentially for Team Finland for Tuukka Rask.
Ference returns to Boston
A Bruin from 2007 to 2013, Andrew Ference was basically here for it all. He arrived to Boston as a return for Brad Stuart, and was part of an awful rebuilding squad. He stuck around for the club’s eventual morph from bubble team to playoff contender to Stanley Cup champion. There’s not much that Ference, an outspoken leader on and off the ice during his time here, missed out on.
Ference’s contributions to hockey in the Hub were far too large to fit into a 30-second montage.
“It was nicer than the game,… Ference, now the Oilers’ captain, said of the video the B’s showed documenting his time here. “Obviously very well treated by the organization and the city while I was here and while I left and throughout this year too, it’s obviously a tremendous hockey city and the organization has been nothing but great to me so that’s very very special.
“Every time I’m in this city is obviously going to be special, it’s a place that is home to me and my family and we grew up here and it could very well be home again. It’s a special city and tonight, this whole last couple days was great until it got put away by the game, which wasn’t so fun. Other than that, nothing but good experience here.…
In my opinion, nobody did more for than own stock in terms of fan reception than Ference did during the latter half of his tenure with the B’s organization.
Ference, while a warrior, was a player that often suffered injuries that limited his productivity, and when the B’s handed him a three-year extension worth nearly $8 million dollars in 2010, the groans were aplenty. And for good reason.
But throughout that contract, Ference proved to be a player worth every cent.
From his infamous and unintentional bird in Montreal, the play that set up Nathan Horton’s Game 7 goal against Tampa, and all the way to shutting down Sidney Crosby in last year’s 2013 Eastern Conference Finals, Ference was a player that you’d love to have on your blue-line.
For me, the biggest memory of Ference during his time here was that Game 7 against Tampa Bay.
Ference was the player that noticed the opening in the Lightning’s famed 1-3-1 system.
He set up the play that Horton scored on, and talking to Ference after that game, I noticed just how much pressure that the veteran blue-liner put on himself in that situation.
I asked him about 2004, and how losing the Cup to Tampa Bay affected him, and he flat out said he was never sure if he’d ever get the chance to be on that stage again. He didn’t want to let the Bruins down, and he didn’t -- now in his 30s -- know if he’d ever have a greater chance at a Cup than he did with that year’s Boston squad. He talked about how he never really got over that loss to Tampa, and how it shaped him as a leader.
He didn't want to just talk the talk for Boston, he wanted to kick the door in.
He got things started for the B’s in their Game 3 trouncing of the Canucks in the Finals, and played with a reckless edge that confirmed what he told me -- He wasn’t ready to let this chance slip by again. He had this incredible ability to simply "up" his game.
He was, and still is, just one of those guys you can’t help but have the utmost respect for.
Up next
The Bruins are back in action on Tuesday night when they play host to the Vancouver Canucks. It will just the Canucks’ second trip to Boston since the B’s defeated them in seven games to win the Stanley Cup back in 2011. Vancouver has won both meetings between the clubs since then, beginning with the a 4-3 Canucks win at TD Garden back on Jan. 7, 2012, and including a 6-2 beatdown of the B’s in Vancouver back in December. It will also be the second game back behind the bench for Massachusetts native John Tortorella after wrapping up his 15-day suspension.