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Swedes Bail Out Bruins In Minnesota, Win 3-2 In Overtime

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                                  “Aaarggghh, is that the playoffs me sees?”

With their second game in two nights, Bruins coach Claude Julien gave Tuukka Rask the night off in favor of giving rookie back-up Niklas Svedberg his eight start of the year after a two-week breather. The youngster responded to the challenge in grand fashion, stopping 35 out of 37 Wild shots in leading the Bs to a much-needed 3-2 OT win in Minnesota. And these weren’t shots flung from the point hitting him in the crest either. The Swede reminded fans of another Swedish Elite League veteran—Tim Thomas—as he made several great saves and single-handedly kept his team alive in the second period when they were out-shot 20-5 and there was no scoring by either team.

Thanks to four points from his countrymen including the OTGWG (Carl Soderberg and Loui Eriksson each put up 1-1–2), Sveddy earned his fourth win of the year and, more importantly, the Bruins got two big points to keep pace in the Wales playoff hunt. So much for “meaningless” games from now til April, huh?

David Krejci returned to the lineup for the first time in 11 games and his effect could be felt right away. No, not because of his line, as he was expectedly rusty after such a layoff (no points, all -1). But because his presence meant that the Chris Kelly-Soderberg-Eriksson line was reunited and took advantage of Minny needing to worry about the Patrice Bergeron and Krejci lines first.

5:06 into the affair, the Big Swede got off the schnide and gave the Bs a 1-0 advantage when he potted a Loui rebound past Niklas Backstrom for his sixth of the year. Minny tied it 27 seconds later when Kyle Brodziak’s shot rode up Dennis Seidenberg’s stick and past Svedberg to tie the game. Late in the first, Patrice Bergeron made it 2-1 when he bounced a shot past Backstrom from the blue line. About halfway through the third, the Bs thought they got some insurance when Kelly pounded the puck over the goal line two seconds before the whistle. But the ref said, incorrectly, that the puck was under the goalie’s pad (it was between his right skate blade and the post). Which means he should’ve blown the whistle then. Shit happens on bang-bang plays like that but don’t piss on my leg and tell me it’s raining.

So you know what happens next. Instead of a two-goal cushion, the Wild tied things up on a pinballing puck after Krejci failed to clear it out of the zone. The teams traded chances over the last eight-plus minutes of regulation but the Bruins owned the brief overtime, outshooting Minny 4-0 in 1:30. Eriksson ended it when he tapped a sweet goalmouth feed from Soderberg past Backstrom. Potential blown point averted.

The win allowed the Bs to leapfrog Florida and take over the #8 seed for the time being (Florida does have three games in hand). They’ll look to make it two in a row tomorrow night in Winnipeg against a rejuvenated Jets squad then they take on Buffalo at home on Sunday vs. a much more competitive Sabres team than earlier in the year. No easy points this weekend.

A few more buds for your bowl…

*Zdeno Chara looked a little more comfortable last night in his second game back. He led all Bruins with 24:13 of ice time and had the second helper on Loui’s game-winner.

*Greg Campbell took exception to a Justin Falk hit that looked like it caught him up high. The two dropped the gloves but the hulking Falk wrestled Campbell to the ice before any real haymakers were thrown.

*Both goals Svedberg gave up were either deflections or changed direction at the last second. Though he has a much different style than Rask, it still works for him. He SP for the game was .946. On the year, he has a .925 and 2.24.

*Bergeron leads the team in scoring with 6-16-22 totals. Soderberg is second with 6-15-21.

*Will David Krejci play both games this weekend?

*The Wild and Bruins are the only two teams in the league that feature a bear as one of its main or secondary logos.

* @krejcismoxie nailed it

 

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