A convincing victory for the Bruins, who shook off Wednesday's disappointment in Buffalo to lay a third-period smackdown on the Islanders while debuting their all-black third jerseys.
Up 2-1 after 40 minutes, the Bruins tucked two third-period pucks behind Joey MacDonald, then put three more past backup Peter Mannino, who was making his NHL debut.
Michael Ryder led the scoring with two goals. Entering today, Ryder had only scored one goal in the last 12 games.
The Bruins gave Manny Fernandez big-time props for stuffing Bill Guerin on a third-period breakaway when it was a 2-1 game. After Fernandez turned aside Guerin, the Bruins went the other way and Blake Wheeler scored the game-winning goal. "That could have changed the game, obviously," said Claude Julien. "If they could have scored, they would have tightened things up. Not scoring a goal, then coming back and scoring a goal solidified our position. I felt we were obviously more comfortable after that."
Marco Sturm said he suffered a concussion against Chicago on Nov. 12. Sturm played the next three games but felt especially poor against Toronto, leading to his five-game sitdown. But Sturm said he's feeling better and should be back on the ice soon.
Patrice Bergeron, the team's best faceoff man, didn't take a single draw for the first time this season. Bergeron took only two faceoffs against Buffalo on Wednesday. Bergeron suffered an injury against Montreal that has prevented him from taking faceoffs in the last two matches, but Julien declined to disclose the ailment. Julien said Bergeron (20 shifts, 18:53 of ice time) is good to go in all other areas of the game.
Milan Lucic was credited with six hits, including one ugly blast from behind in the first period on Tim Jackman. Lucic also dropped the gloves with Brendan Witt after Dennis Wideman's third-period power-play goal. Lucic said Witt gave him several cross-checks that he didn't like, leading to the fight.
Also joining Lucic in the rough stuff was Shane Hnidy, who went with Jackman in the third period. Hnidy said Jackman initiated the fight and said he understood the invitation, considering the frustration of the Islanders.
STICK SALUTE: David Krejci. Hard to think of any other third-line centers who are so clever and dangerous. Twice in a row, Krejci outraced a backchecking Jon Sim in the third period, leading to a pair of Boston goals within 10 seconds.
SIN BIN: Freddy Meyer. The former Boston University defenseman made a bad decision to jump up in the play, leaving Chris Campoli as the lone man back to defend Krejci and Wheeler before the rookie's game-winner.
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Revolution
(Barry Chin/Globe Staff)
