Bruins Nation

last night's game was one of the most entertaining games I have ever watched. Marc Savard, coming off of an injury, had five points. Phil Kessel had a hat-trick. Milan Lucic scored his first NHL goal and won a fight. It was just a fantastic game. Both teams combined for FOURTEEN goals. It just doesn't get more fun to watch. The only down side to this game was that Manny Fernandez was horrible. He had some great saves, but 3 or 4 of the six goals, depending on how you look at them, were completely Manny's fault. The Bruins defense, even though they gave up six goals, played quite well. A few blown coverages here and there, but an overall strong performance. Meanwhile the offense played very well. The wingers and centers were positioning themselves well and creating scoring opportunities. Here's the period by period breakdown:

• The first period was not as goal-crazy as the other two. Near the middle of the period, Milan Lucic put on a big hit on Ivanans. They got into a fight, and as previously mentioned, Milan Lucic won against a much bigger Ivanans (a true heavyweight). Lucic got in more punches and took down Ivanans. Then with 3:05 left in the period, right after a power play, Phil Kessel's snap shot from the faceoff circle went in and the Bruins were up. Then, At the very end of the period, on the power play, Brad Stuart (yep, he's with LA now) shot a hard drive from the blue line that got by Manny. The two teams went into the locker rooms with the game tied at one.

• Four minutes into the second period, on the power play, Savard's shot from the faceoff circle was saved by Berneier. The rebound, however, was put in by Glen Murray on a great reaction and the Bruins were up 2-1. A minute and a half later, Aaron Ward recieved a pass at teh King blue line, he then lost control of his stick, regained control of his stick, and sent a very hard drive past Bernier to put the Bruins up by two. A few mintues later on the power play, Kessel tapped in a great tape-to-tape pass from Savard to put the Bruins up 4-1. The Bruins lost momentum as the period went on. With under three minuted left, A Savard slip led to Brady Murray skating up to Manny, deking him out, and scoring. Then with under a minute left, A kings shot on the power play led to an easy save by Fernandez. Manny could not hang onto the rebound though and Anze Kapiter had an empty net to shoot the rebound into. The second period ended with the Bruins up 4-3.

• A minute into the third period, Phil Kessel put in a Marc Savard rebound to give the Bruins a two goal lead and Kessel the hat trick. A few minutes after that, though, Mike Cammalleri's shot from right in front of Fernandez went in to cut the lead to one. Then Anze Kapiter's drive hit off the goal crossbar before Manny accidentally knocked it into the goal tying the game at 5. The Bruins did not break though! Nine minutes into the period, Glen Murray set up a Marc Savard one-timer to give the Bruins the lead. Then a little later in the period, David Krejci was skating down the ice on the right side with the puck. He was able to (in playmaker fashion) find Milan Lucic bolting down the center of the ice. Lucic easily tapped it into the net (his first NHl goal) to give the Bruins the 7-5 lead. Chuck Kobasew was able to score an empty net goal to give the Bruins an 8-5 lead. The Kings did not give up though, and O'sullivan scored with 4 seconds left. And the Bruins won 8-6!

So to sum it up, the goal scorers were: Kessel (3), Ward, Murray, Savard, Kobasew, and Lucic. The assist-ers were: Lucic, Kessel, Axelsson, Krejci (2), Schaefer, Murray, Bergeron, Savard (4), Ference, and Chara (2).

The Bruins take on Joe Thornton and the San Jose Sharks tonight at 10:30.