Fortunately, with less than a minute remaining in a 1-0 game, Patrice Bergeron woke the Bruins from their horrifying offensive slumber — but it still wasn't enough.
The Bruins offense finally got a goal — its first since shutting out the Oilers last Saturday — but Boston ultimately fell in a shootout on Thursday night at the TD Garden, losing a 2-1 decision to their storied rivals from Montreal. The Bruins were stymied on all three of their shots in the shootout while Mike Cammalleri scored the lone Habs goal.
On the same day forward David Krejci was diagnosed with the H1N1 virus, the seriously struggling Bruins — who are also missing top forwards Marc Savard and Milan Lucic — got the game-tying goal from Bergeron with 52 seconds remaining in the third period.
Former Bruin Glen Metropolit had scored Montreal's only regulation goal with 2:28 left in the first period. Trailing a rush up the ice, Metropolit was in perfect position to finish off a wrap-around attempt by Andrei Kostitsyn.
Canadiens 2, Bruins 1
Nov. 5, 2009
TD Garden, Boston, Mass.
Headliner: With time winding down in the first period, both teams looked pretty
evenly matched — and neither could score. Then, Glen Metropolit tipped
the scales far in Montreal's favor with a nine-foot tip-in, his third goal of the season, assisted by
Andrei Kostitsyn and Ryan White. The B's were so close to getting out
of the first period unscathed, but instead they headed to the locker
room with a sour taste in their mouths and an uphill battle to fight.
Metropolit, a 35-year-old journeyman center, had 11 goals and 22 assists in 82 games for the B's back in the 2007-08 season.
Canadiens netminder Carey Price also came up big on Thursday night, making 42 saves to improve to 3-6-0 on the season.
Grinder: The panic was palpable. The Bruins were on the verge of being shut
out for the third consecutive game for the first time since 1929. With an
empty net and less than a minute left in a 1-0 game, Patrice Bergeron
tallied his fifth goal of the season on a wrist shot and saved Boston
from eternal damnation and embarrassment. It was Boston's first goal
in 192 minutes and 6 seconds, the first since Vladimir Sobotka scored in the B's shutout of the Oilers last Saturday.
Zdeno Chara and Derek Morris notched the assists.
Weak Link: The offense finally came through, but one goal in three games is not good enough — especially when the Bruins dominated the box score. Boston outshot the Canadiens a whopping 43-26, out-hit them 35-23 and won the faceoff battle 32-25, yet they still got only one point at the end of the night. Some of those shots need to start finding the back of the net before Boston gets itself into a hole it can't dig its way out of when Savard, Lucic and Krejci return to the mix.
Key Moment: The Bruins tried. They really tried to get a goal. Marco Sturm even
went as far as to lift the net off the ice, allowing a Patrice
Bergeron shot to slide right under the side of the goal and into the
net. Though it was initially ruled a goal, it was promptly overturned
because the puck did not enter the goal from between the two posts. The altered call temporarily sucked much of the life out of the demoralized Bruins.
But Bergeron came through with the tying goal with less than a minute remaining in regulation and totally saved the morale of the entire team, sending the contest into overtime and, eventually, a shootout.
What's Next: The B's return to action for a Saturday night matchup against Buffalo. The Sabres are sitting pretty in first place in the Northeast Division with a 9-2 record and 19 points, five ahead of the second-place Senators. The Sabres will welcome the Flyers to town on Friday night before setting out for Boston.
Buffalo called up Jhonas Enroth from the minors on Thursday to fill in for injured backup
goalie Patrick Lalime, who hurt his groin on Wednesday. With the Sabres
playing back-to-back games this weekend, he could get the start on
Saturday night.
Center Tim Connolly leads the Sabres in points with 10, and left-winger Clarke MacArthur leads the team with five goals.
