Bruins Down Leafs To Complete Historic November

On Wednesday night the Boston Bruins made organizational history. Capping off a 12-0-1 month of November with a 6-3 victory in Toronto’s Air Canada Centre, the B’s completed their first month without a loss (in regulation) since January of 1969.

Leading the way for the B’s on Wednesday was their much-maligned (this season) top line of Nathan Horton, David Krejci and Milan Lucic.  The Boston first line, which hadn’t seen a multi-goal performance since Nathan Horton on November 7 against the Islanders, combined for 3 goals, 4 assists and a +5 total rating on Wednesday. It is imperative for the B’s to get their top line back on track and producing at a consistent pace, and last night was a huge step in the right direction for head coach Claude Julien’s bunch.

Despite allowing an early power-play goal to noted Bruins-killer Mikhail Grabovski, Boston was able to outscore the Leafs 6-2 over the remainder of the game. It was at the 15:08 mark of the first frame that Milan Lucic would knot the score at one a side when he went upstairs of Leafs’ netminder Jonas Gustavsson after a bit of beautiful triangle passing on the power-play.

After a back-and-forth second period in which the B’s would take a 3-2 lead after David Krejci notched his 4th of the season and Zdeno Chara added his 5th of the campaign, it appeared as if Boston had took control of the game’s momentum. It was at the 3:03 mark of the final frame that the Bruins took control of the game as Benoit Pouliot picked the corner on Gustavsson for his 3rd of the season to make the score 4-2. A mere 2:57 later, Toronto would answer as rookie Matt Frattin scored his second of the season after an unlucky bounce caught Tim Thomas off guard and the puck ended up in the Boston net. At the 15:21 mark of the third period, as David Krejci set up shop in Wayne Gretzky’s office, Milan Lucic found his way to the front of the Toronto net for the eventual redirection of a pass from the Czech-born centerman for his second goal of the night. Brad Marchand would add an empty-netter with 0:52 seconds remaining to seal the 6-3 win for Boston as they continue their domination of Original Six rival Toronto. The Bruins have now outscored the Leafs by an astonishing 19-5 total in three games this season.

KEY STATS

Goals–                        BOS (6)            TOR (3)

Shots–                       BOS (40)           TOR (37)

Power-Play–           BOS (1-5)          TOR (1-2)

Penalty-Kill–           BOS (1-2)          TOR (4-5)

• Three Stars– ….. 3.) Luke Schenn ….. 2.) Milan Lucic    ….. 1.) David Krejci

What’s Next?

Following tonight’s game both teams will make the trip to Boston for the second half of this home-and-home series between these two original six rivals on Saturday night. In their only meeting at TD Garden this season, Boston steamrolled the Leafs by a 6-2 score.

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