Boston Bruins Gamenight: Seguin goal quiets talk, Habs

All it takes is one.

Through all of the noise about Tyler Seguin’s so-called scoring”Slump” to start the season, both he and Coach Claude Julien insisted that there was nothing fundamentally wrong, it just hadn’t happened…yet the questions and raised eyebrows persisted…

Feb 6, 2013; Montreal, QC, CAN; Boston Bruins forward Tyler Seguin (19) celebrates his goal against the Montreal Canadiens with teammate David Krejci (46) during the third period at the Bell Centre. Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports

…and now that the Bruins’ young greyhound has netted his first “real” goal of the season, the talk can shift to something else while Seguin goes about busting out something proper.

Seguin’s goal at the 14 second mark of the final frame tied Boston with the host Montreal Canadiens, who had dominated the ice at the Bell Centre up to that moment.

The Habs took the lead midway through the 2nd period when P.K. Subban wristed a shot off Rich Peverley’s stick and past Bruins’ goalie Tuukka Rask, who otherwise notched another fantastic game, stopping 20 shots and single handedly keeping Boston in the game in the first period when the Bruins’ offense went over half the period before registering a shot on goal while the Canadiens pelted Rask.

The Canadiens’ goal came on the power play, ending a Bruins’ streak of 16 consecutive penalty kills on the road to start the season.

So with the Bruins down a goal to the Montreal Canadiens to start the final period, Seguin ties it with a nifty backhander past Habs’ goalie Carey Price, who stoped 21 of 23, and two minutes later watched rushing linemate David Krejci redirect a Milan Lucic centering pass past Price, and the Bruins held on from there for a tough 2-1 win on Wednesday night.

Seguin isn’t normally on the Krecji / Lucic line, but just before the third period began Julien lifted Nathan Horton from the line and replaced him with Seguin, trying to find a spark for their still floundering offense, and it took all of 2:05 seconds before the Bruins had scored twice to take the lead for good.

The victory moved the Bruins (7-1-1) into sole possession of first place in the Northeast Division and kept Montreal (6-3-0) from taking over the division lead.

The Bruins have some tough sledding ahead, quite literally, as they return home to host the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday afternoon, though the matinee could be impacted by Nor’easter “Nemo”, as the storm is expected to dump perhaps 2 feet of snow on Boston Friday night into Saturday – complicating matters still is that the Bruins have to get on a plane directly afterwards and fly to Buffalo, which will have weather issues of it’s own.

The Canadiens fly to Buffalo tonight for a match with the Sabres tomorrow night, then return to Montreal to host Toronto on Saturday night and should be able to avoid travel issues.

The Bruins are on a roll, the only blemish is a big one – the 7-4 loss to the Sabres last week, one that can be eradicated by a strong performance in Buffalo on Sunday, a game that Bruins’ bully Shawn Thornton should be back for…

…but first the Bruins have to deal with a bully named Nemo.