With Ottawa leading 2-0 in the second period, Glen Murray thought he had slashed the deficit in half when he put a puck behind Martin Gerber.

But referee Dan O'Halloran waved off the goal, which came after Chris Phillips dumped Marco Sturm into Gerber. According to Claude Julien, O'Halloran had intended to blow his whistle to declare the play dead prior to Murray's shot.

"Poor explanation," said Julien. "He said his intent was to blow the whistle, which is what the ruling is. He certainly didn't blow it on time, but it's still the intent. But when you look at the replay, there's no reason to even attempt to blow that whistle. That puck wasn't frozen. It was nowhere near frozen. It was in. In no time. To me, that was just a real tough call to swallow because we're back in the game 2-1."

* Marc Savard wasn't sure how his rebound of a Chuck Kobasew flurry didn't go into the net. Savard said he swatted the puck with the toe of his blade, then it caromed off the top of the crossbar.

* Dany Heatley capped his hat trick with an empty-net goal at 19:24 of the third period. Heatley also assisted on Jason Spezza's power-play goal for a four-point night.

* The fourth line of Peter Schaefer, Vladimir Sobotka, and Shawn Thornton recorded a total of six shots, second-most of the Boston threesomes. The No. 1 line combined for 10 shots.

* The Boston power play went 0 for 5 with five total shots. In the second period, Julien sent out a second unit that included Milan Lucic, Glen Metropolit, and P.J. Axelsson. In the third period, he replaced Matt Lashoff at the point with Savard, with Axelsson going down low.

* The Bruins are scheduled to practice tomorrow at 11:30 a.m. at Ristuccia Arena.