Kessel caps another shootout victory
The Red Sox are still searching for a closer, but the Bruins already have one.
For the fourth time this season, rookie Phil Kessel sent his team off the ice with a shootout victory, and may have kept the Bruins' playoff hopes alive. Kessel capped Boston's comeback from a 3-0 deficit with a shootout-clinching goal, lifting the Bruins to a 4-3 win over the Washington Capitals last night in front of 15,091 at TD Banknorth Garden.
"He's like [Mariano] Rivera from the Yankees," said Marc Savard, who had three assists to give him a career-high 70. "You put him in there late and there is a 90 percent chance he's going to get a win. It's great for us."
It was the fourth time this season in four meetings the Bruins and Capitals went to overtime and the third time they had to settle it via a shootout. The Bruins swept all four meetings, but none was more important than last night's victory. Coupled with losses by the Hurricanes and Islanders, two of the teams the Bruins are chasing for the eighth playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, the Black-and-Gold revival left Boston 5 points back with 12 games to play. That's the good news. The bad news is they still have three teams between them and the Islanders and Hurricanes.
The Bruins could not afford to squander 2 points against the Capitals, who have lost nine straight.
"We can't be in more of a need-to-win situation, so it was about as important as it can be," said goalie Tim Thomas, who made 31 saves and allowed only Alexander Ovechkin to tally in the shootout.
That situation made the Bruins' play for nearly the first two periods puzzling. Washington came out playing like the team desperate for points in a playoff chase. The Capitals jumped out to a 2-0 first-period lead on a pair of Chris Clark goals.
Clark, who had his second career hat trick before the end of the second period, struck just 1:21 into the game. New Bedford-born Brian Pothier flicked the puck toward the front of the net and it deflected off Bobby Allen's skate, right to a wide-open Clark.
As bad as the start of the first period was, the ending was worse. With 50 seconds left on a man advantage, Marco Sturm was given a double-minor for high-sticking at 17:41. Chuck Kobasew joined him in the box 1:23 later, giving Washington a five-on-three advantage. Clark cashed in with 15.2 seconds remaining, burying a cross-ice feed from Ovechkin.
Clark put the Bruins in a 3-0 hole when he scored shorthanded at 17:03 of the second. With the way Kolzig (36 saves) was playing in his first game back after missing 13 with a torn left medial collateral ligament, it looked like that lead would hold up.
However, while it took the Bruins 37 minutes to put themselves in a three-goal hole, it took them a lot less to get out of it, and it was the much-maligned power play that helped them do it. The Bruins scored three straight power-play goals in a span of 3:11.
Marco Sturm (goal and an assist) started the comeback at 18:24 of the second, finishing a pretty tic-tac-toe play with Patrice Bergeron and Savard. Boston, which went 3 for 9 on the power play, opened the third period on a five-on-three advantage and scored twice, Brandon Bochenski netting his 12th of the season just 30 seconds in and Bergeron tying it with his 20th goal 1:05 later.
"That was the most important power play of the season because we had to get back," said Bochenski. "We managed to get two."
The game almost did not go to a shootout. The Bruins survived a scare in overtime when Alexander Semin sent a backhander that beat Thomas, but it caromed off the post. Kolzig stopped a flurry of Boston shots in the waning seconds of OT, hurting his right knee on a save on Zdeno Chara.
After the game, Kolzig said his knee didn't affect his ability against Kessel.
"He's a great goalie. I got lucky to put it in the net," said Kessel.
Bruins coach Dave Lewis relished his team's comeback, but was already looking ahead to tomorrow's game against the Rangers, who are 3 points ahead of the Bruins.
"Considering the situation, it doesn't get any better than this," said Lewis. "We were down, 3-0, and we found a way to win. We certainly needed the 2 points, but we can't get too excited. We're playing a hungry Rangers team." 