Wish granted for Bergeron

OTTAWA - The hope, according to Patrice Bergeron, was that his teammates could qualify for the playoffs, thereby keeping his hopes of returning this season alive.

Bergeron watched from the Scotiabank Place press box last night as the Bruins did just that.

"I don't need to tell you how great they've worked," said Bergeron. "All year, they've done such a great job. We've done such a great job. It's just awesome. At the same time, I think we've deserved it. We're a great team and we're pretty excited looking forward. Yes, we're in, but we can't be too excited about it. Anything can happen in the playoffs."

Including a return. Bergeron is tentatively scheduled to see his neurologist Monday, with a chance he could be cleared for full-contact practice. Bergeron, who participated in yesterday's morning skate, has said he would need 7-10 days of full-contact practices before he can consider himself ready for game action.

"Every game, they've given me a chance to get back," Bergeron said. "But I'm going to be smart with it. They've done such a great job. I'd like to be a part of it."

Savard skates

Marc Savard skated on his own at Ristuccia Arena yesterday for the first time since suffering a back injury against Montreal March 22. Savard skated for several minutes and also worked out off the ice. Savard missed his sixth straight game last night.

It's a different scenario for the Senators, who also qualified for the playoffs last night. The Senators were without captain Daniel Alfredsson (upper body, knee) and alternate captain Mike Fisher (knee), who were injured in Ottawa's 8-2 thrashing of Toronto Thursday. During the first period, Alfredsson had his clock cleaned by bruiser Mark Bell, who leveled the captain with a head shot. Alfredsson never saw Bell coming. Fisher (23-24 -47 in 79 games) was injured during a knee-on-knee collision.

General manager and coach Bryan Murray said both players will be out weeks. Murray said Alfredsson doesn't have a concussion, but he appeared dazed and skated only one shift after the hit.

"I don't think there are any concussion concerns," added Alfredsson (40-49 -89 in 70 games). "Obviously soreness. My knee's a little sore today as well. We'll see how long it takes."

Murray said he talked to league officials yesterday, who informed him that Bell delivered a clean hit and would not be suspended. Murray brushed off a question about whether the Senators should have retaliated against Bell, who was wearing a full cage.

"He has a full shield on," Murray said. "He doesn't play in the league that much. He's played 25 or 30 games this year. What good is that? We just had to win the hockey game. All I heard was that Toronto was going to ruin our day. They don't do that to us now. And it doesn't do us any good to try and pull his mask off. What does that do for us?"

Center Jason Spezza termed the play a "clean, dirty hit," explaining that Bell was within the rules, but the hit didn't show respect to Alfredsson.

"That's the way our game is now," said Murray, who compared the situation with last season's incident when the Senators' Chris Neil hit then-Sabre Chris Drury, sparking a brawl. "It's so competitive. We've got big, big guys out there in great shape. If you want to bury guys, you get a chance to quite often."

The Bruins didn't have much sympathy for the Senators and their injury situation.

"That's their problem," said coach Claude Julien. "We've had that problem all year. It would be a waste of my time to talk about their problems. Every team has their own problems. You deal with them and move forward with it. I've mentioned a lot of times that nobody's ever felt sorry for us. We shouldn't start feeling sorry for other teams."

Trying his best

Jordan Knackstedt, Boston's seventh-round pick (No. 189 overall) in the 2007 draft, signed an amateur tryout agreement with Providence, joining Zach Hamill, Jeff Penner, and Adam Courchaine as late additions to the AHL club. Knackstedt is unsigned by the Bruins, who have until June 1, 2009, to bring the forward into the fold before he becomes a free agent. Knackstedt, 19, has one more year of junior eligibility as an overage player. He can return to Moose Jaw next season, but Chiarelli said he'd like to sign him this summer.

Courchaine was signed to a tryout agreement partly because of the groin injury suffered by Tuukka Rask last Saturday. Courchaine will return to the Ottawa 67s, his junior club, in 2008-09.

"He's very athletic," general manager Peter Chiarelli said of the goalie. "But he has to work on his work ethic and conditioning. He has to commit to becoming a professional."

Courchaine is a junior teammate of fellow Bruins prospect Radim Ostrcil, picked in the sixth round last year. The defenseman struggled in his first year of juniors, putting up a 0-13 -13 line in 59 games.

"He's got some work to do," said Chiarelli.

Home away from home

The Bruins were scheduled to spend the night in a downtown hotel upon their return to Boston early this morning. They also got rooms the last time they had a home game the day after a road match. The move, however, didn't work on the previous occasion, as the Bruins laid a 10-2 egg at Washington, then lost a 1-0 overtime decision to Florida at TD Banknorth Garden. The setbacks kicked off an 11-game stretch in which the Bruins won only two games . . . Julien said he learned of Carolina's loss with approximately 10 minutes remaining in the game . . . Andrew Ference (sprained knee) said he felt better after yesterday's morning skate at Scotiabank Place. Ference, however, missed his sixth straight game . . . Chiarelli said his scouts have done some video work on possible playoff opponents, concentrating on Pittsburgh and Montreal. But Chiarelli said the focus was on finishing out the regular season.