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Three fights, two goals and an angry crowd made for a historically tumultuous first 80 seconds of play last Thursday night at the TD Garden in Boston. After an additional seven goals and a headshot that resulted in a lengthy suspension, the Boston Bruins came out on top, 6-3, over the Pacific Division-leading Dallas Stars.
The Bruins failed to carry the momentum to their next game, falling 2-0 to the San Jose Sharks last Saturday. The team now stands at 30-16-7, good for first in the Northeast Division.
One second after the opening faceoff against Dallas, a fight broke out between Bruins forward Gregory Campbell and Stars forward Steve Ott. The two men grappled with each other and threw short hooks before the refs broke up the fight after 10 seconds.
On the next faceoff just 1 second later, Bruins forward Shawn Thornton and Stars forward Krystofer Barch mixed it up. The two threw down their gloves and multiple punches were thrown. Two seconds later, defenseman Adam McQuaid of the Bruins and forward Brian Sutherby of the Stars got in each other's faces. McQuaid took down Sutherby and pummeled him, repeatedly punching him in the face.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the last time six fighting majors were called in the first 5 seconds of a game occurred in a game between the Montreal Canadians and the Buffalo Sabers on March 22, 1996.
Thirty-five seconds into the game, the Bruins scored. On a two-on-one breakaway, Bruins forward David Krejci passed it to a waiting and eager Milan Lucic 5 feet away on Stars goalie Andrew Raycroft's right side. Lucic flipped the puck over the goalie's left shoulder.
Lightning struck twice, as the Bruins scored again just 45 seconds later. Forward Brad Marchand passed to forward Patrice Bergeron right in front of the goal. Raycroft reached out to intercept the pass, but failed, and Bergeron easily stuck the puck in the back of the net.
Dallas pulled Raycroft, and Kari Lehtonen was placed in net. However, changing goaltenders was not sufficient to make up for the Stars' shoddy defense. Dallas let the Bruins take numerous shots and failed to clear rebounds in front of the net.
Two and a half minutes after the change, defenseman Andrew Ference of the Bruins and forward Adam Burish got into yet another scrum. Burish fell to the ice before the fight was broken up, and the seventh and eighth fighting majors of the game were handed out.
After the game, Ference said that it was simply a matter of two teams that never back away from a fight.
"Their guys like to mix it up," he said. "We knew it was gonna be a physical game, and that doesn't just mean fighting. We have two teams that don't mind getting their noses dirty. Playing with that emotion, it just happens. ... Guys were full of piss and vinegar."
The Bruins scored twice more later in the period, with Bergeron netting his first, and Thornton scoring with 4 minutes left to put Boston up 4-0.
With 16 minutes left in the second period, Boston captain and defenseman Zdeno Chara earned a 10-minute misconduct penalty, earning boos and vulgar chants. As the obscene calls were cascading, the Bruins appeared to score only to have the goal called off for interference in the crease, earning the loudest boos of the night.
Midway through the second period, on a Dallas breakaway, Bruins forward Daniel Paille hit Stars forward Raymond Sawada on the head at full speed. Paille was immediately ejected and subsequently suspended for the next four games.
In the second and third periods Dallas scored 3 unanswered goals to close the deficit to 4-3 before Boston scored again with 15 minutes left in the game. Forward Tyler Seguin scored on a slapshot. Marchand scored the final goal for the Bruins with 3 minutes remaining.
Two days later, the Bruins faced the Sharks and were unable to continue their momentum. Due to Sharks goalkeeper Antti Niemi's third shutout of the season and Boston's failure to execute on a power play for the fifth-straight match, the Sharks earned their seventh win in eight games.
"San Jose won more battles than we did-that's where the game was decided and ultimately the biggest difference," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "This [play] is a result of players that just need to be better as we head down to the stretch."
The first period was a defensive one, as the two teams battled it out, unable to score amid sterling goalkeeping by Niemi and Bruin goalie Tim Thomas. However, a Bruins penalty resulted in a Sharks power play at 14:23, and San Jose capitalized with a tip-in goal by center Logan Couture. Left wing Ryane Clowe and defenseman Marc Edouard-Vlasic came up with the assists. From there, the game once again became a defensive battle of wills. Even with two power plays and 8 shots on goal, the Bruins failed to capitalize and the deficit remained 1-0 at the end of the period.
Defense and solid goalkeeping set the tone once again for the second period. Despite 16 shots on goal, 10 coming from the Bruins, neither team could take advantage.
Both teams still struggled to gain offensive control of the match in the final period. Boston and San Jose combined for another 16 shots on goal but Thomas and Niemi still were impenetrable in the crease. The Bruins had their fourth power-play opportunity in the middle of the period but still could not utilize it to their advantage.
Krejci was disappointed with the team's power plays.
"There was good traffic, but we just couldn't execute when we needed to," he said.
Boston failed to execute throughout the rest of the game, and in haste to tie the game in the final seconds ceded a goal with 3 seconds left. San Jose right wing Devin Setoguchi fired the puck down the rink into an empty net to extend the lead to 2-0 and seal the match. Clowe and Vlasic provided their second assists of the night.
"We wish it could've been a better situation, but we just didn't have the same energy in the building," McQuaid said.
The Bruins take on the Montreal Canadiens tomorrow at 7 p.m. The Canadiens are currently 2 points behind the Bruins in the Northeast Division.