Bruins Nation

The penultimate did not go as planned. The Bruins played great for the first half of the first period, but then the extremely talented Buffalo Sabres team managed to score four unanswered goals against a weak and tired Boston Bruins team. Mark Mowers apparently did something to himself during warmups becuase he didn't play, and Dave Lewis had to switch around the lines. The main story was the great play of Thomas Vanek and Ryan Miller. Hannu Toivonen had a good game again but he had such a weak defense in front of him that it didn't even matter. Vanek on the other hand had two goals, while Ryan Miller was absolutely amazing. Stopping 20 of 22 shots, half of them great shots by the Bruins offense. The Bruins had decent offense, and played great on transition, the defense was just awful though.

Four minutes into the game, Phil Kessel's shot was saved, but Andrew Ference came to the rescue by putting the rebound over Miller and into the net. A little later Brandon Bochenski blew an amazing breakaway opportunity. Then with six minutes left in the first, Patrice Bergeron's power play shot went in and out very quickly. After being reviewed, it was counted as a goal and the Bruins had a 2-0 lead over the number one team in the east. 21 seconds later, Kotalik made a great move and scored, cutting the lead in half. Then a few minutes later, Thomas Vanek got a rebound from behind the net and managed to sneak the puck in through the side of the net.

In the third period, Thomas Vanek untied the score by shooting the puck between Toivonen's legs. Then ten minutes later on a Sabres power play, great Buffalo passing in the Bruins zone led to a wide open shot into a wide open net. The defense looked tired, they were barely moving. So now the Bruins only have one more game that they can win.

Hannu TOivonen has played well with the Bruins. He was just shipped to Providence to play with them as they play in the AHL playoffs (Calder Cup I believe). I expect Petr Kalus and Jeff Hoggan will do the same. (Jeremy Reich, Brandon Bochenski, and Bobby Allen may still be eligible. I'm not sure what the specific rules are.)