Effort finally pays for Bruins
They get down to work in win
KANATA, Ontario -- As the Bruins learned over the last two days, it's not fun to have your legs, lungs, and character tested.
Last night, a day after their coach whipped them through a 45-minute sprints session, the rubber-legged Bruins were a tired bunch.
But not beaten.
The Bruins, who staggered into Scotiabank Place with an 0-4-1 record in their last five games, snapped their winless streak with a 3-2 victory over the Ottawa Senators before a full house of 19,786.
And they had a good time doing it.
"It hasn't been fun because we haven't been winning and obviously haven't been working," said Marc Savard, who centered Marco Sturm and Patrice Bergeron on a power line formed just minutes before the drop of the puck. "We worked tonight and we had fun."
The 2 points came against an unlikely opponent. Ottawa entered last night with a 4-0-1 record in its last five games. Only once in their last 21 games had the Senators lost in regulation.
But both of those runs were blemished when the playoff-bound Senators ran into a Boston squad that was playing to win jobs, regain pride, and clean off a tarnished spoked-B that had taken a licking in a March filled with misery.
In a 5-0 loss to the Penguins Sunday, they showed little effort, a character flaw that irked coach Dave Lewis even more than the outcome.
Last night, for at least one game, they showed they haven't mailed in the rest of the season.
"Today, we just played hockey," said Lewis. "They worked hard, but I thought they enjoyed the game. We haven't said that a lot in the last week or so."
It didn't look that way to start the game. Fifty-five seconds in, Ottawa sniper Dany Heatley netted his team-leading 46th goal. After the puck hit some bodies, center Jason Spezza gained control, spotted his winger at the right circle, and fired a crisp cross-ice pass. Heatley didn't hesitate, winging a dart between the pads of Joey MacDonald for his 200th point as a Senator.
Then at 3:03 of the first period, Andrew Ference was sent off for interference, giving the dangerous Ottawa power play an opportunity to make it 2-0.
But MacDonald (32 saves) kept his net clear of pucks for the rest of the period. On the other end, during a 57-second five-on-three power play, Bergeron slammed a slapper from high in the Ottawa zone past goalie Ray Emery (14 saves) to tie the game.
In the second period, forward Mike Fisher gave the Senators a 2-1 lead with a power-play goal, but Petr Kalus, playing in his third NHL game, picked the right time to score his first career goal.
Kalus, playing left wing on a line with Mark Mowers and Shean Donovan, started the play with some strong forechecking deep in the zone. Once the Bruins gained control of the puck, Kalus drove to the net. Mowers found the rookie and set him up with a pass that Kalus shoveled past Emery at 4:08.
As Kalus celebrated, Dennis Wideman retrieved the puck and handed it to equipment manager Mark Dumas for safe keeping.
"I couldn't believe that," said the 19-year-old winger, one of Boston's brighter prospects. "I was so happy. I didn't know what to do. It was a great feeling."
Kalus, who also saw power-play time on the No. 2 unit, completed the game with 14 shifts and 11:18 of ice time. He recorded two hits and one takeaway, and although Lewis noticed some things the rookie has to learn in his own zone, the coach liked the excitement that Kalus brought to the game.
Forty-seven seconds after Kalus's goal, Zdeno Chara scored the winner. The Bruins drove to the net -- a plot of real estate they rarely visited during their losing streak. With traffic in front, Chara took a pass from Stanislav Chistov and flipped a wrister from the point that found its way past Emery at 4:55, giving the Bruins their 3-2 advantage.
That was all the cushion MacDonald needed as the netminder kicked out all 13 third-period shots.
"Every opportunity I get, I've got to play well," said MacDonald, who'll become an unrestricted free agent. "I've got to fight for a job, whether that's here or wherever it is next year."
For yet another year, the Bruins will not participate in the postseason, left to consider what went wrong during 2006-07. But on a night when a teenager discovered the joy of scoring an NHL goal, the Bruins learned that 60 minutes of effort can lead to a satisfied flight home. 