Bruins Nation

There was no shame in Last night's loss. No NHL team goes undefeated, sometimes you just lose games.

Marc Savard and Hannu Toivenen played great games. Savard had two power play goals and Toivenen made 36 saves. Among the 36 saves, there were several clutch saves and several tough saves. There was basically no defense in the game as both teams combined for 74 shots. All in all it was a down-to-the-wire game that was a lot of fun to watch.

In the first period, both teams came out hitting, and firing shots. The Canadiens scored the only goal of the first period when Markov scored on a power play. (The Habs had four PP's in the first period. The refs really had their eyes on the Bruins.)

The Bruins came out of the locker in the first period and scored quickly. Two minutes in, on the power play, Patrice Bergreron passed the puck across the ice to a diving Marc Savard who managed to get the puck in the net, tying the game. Minutes later though, Sergei Samsonov (yes, that Sergei Samsonov) scored, giving the Canadiens a 2-1 lead.

Later in the period, the Canadiens had the puck in their own zone on a Bruins power play, when Savard managed to edge the puck away from a Canadiens player. Glen Murray then got the puck and passed it ahead to Savard. Marc Savard, with some fancy blade work and puck control, scored another goal. The second period ended with the Bruins and Canadiens tied 2-2.

The third period was a lot of fun to watch. In the middle of the period, Samsonov scored his second of the game after Chara had the puck stripped, giving the Habs a 3-2 lead. Then a couple minutes later the Canadiens scored again on a shot that "surprised" Toivenen. So the Habs had 4-2 lead.

With only a couple minutes left, Lewis pulled Toivenen in favor of an extra attacker. With 51 seconds left, Savard won a face-off in the Canadiens zone and sent the puck back to York at the blue line. York, with Zdeno Chara in front of the net screening the goalie, shot a drive to the net. Petr Tenkrat managed to redirect the puck and into the net, cutting the Habs lead in half.

The Bruins couldn't put the puck in the net again though, and the Bruins lost to the Canadiens (I hate saying it too) 4-3.

One last note: It's nice to see the Bruins power play finally working after a six game absence. (Savard had two PP goals). Next game is tomorrow night at the garden against the New Jersey Devils.