Third period, 6:48, Panthers 1-0: The B’s first PP unit gets booed off the ice by the Garden crowd.
Third period, 7:28, Panthers 1-0: Timmmmbberrrr! Zdeno Chara gets hauled down by a Dvorak trip as the B’s go on the power play.
Third period, 13:47, Panthers 1-0: As expected, it was a very strong PK for the Bruins, who even had a great scoring chance when Wheeler and Krejci stormed down with a 2-on-1. But Wheeler whiffs just outside the goalmouth and they don’t even get a shot on net.
Third period, 16:16, Panthers 1-0: Marchand heads to the box for a hook to give the Panthers their first power play of the night.
The B’s are second in the league in PKs while Florida is 30th in PPs. Should be an easy kill.
Third period, 19:19, Panthers 1-0: It was announced during the second intermission that Thornton has an upper body injury, which is contrary to the previous report that he was a healthy scratch.
Second intermission, Panthers 1-0: The B’s outshot the Panthers 17-10 in the second but remain off the board.
It was a much better frame this time around for the Black and Gold, but Clemmensen turned his game up as well.
Second period, 1:51, Panthers 1-0: After a lengthy review from one of the B’s power-play chances, the refs keep things as is — a 1-0 Panthers lead.
Second period, 4:19 Panthers 1-0: Recchi just missed a golden opportunity to knot things up as the veteran took a quick feed all alone in front but found Clemmensen’s leg pad. Weiss gets whistled for the trip and the B’s get their second power play of the night.
Second period, 7:32, Panthers 1-0: The B’s offense is alive and well, but Clemmensen is kicking aside everything they throw at him.
It looked like a Boston power play for a good three minutes as they were playing keep-away in the Panthers zone.
Second period, 11:36, Panthers 1-0: Wideman and Stuart are trying to generate a little offense as the D-men each notched a pair of quality shots on net. Wideman’s wrister from the near dot trickled wide far post after catching a piece of Clemmensen’s shirt.
Second period, 13:05, Panthers 1-0: The Marchand-Begin-Paille trio bangs out a good shift with a couple of nice scoring chances. Begin’s pass to a streaking Marchand was tipped by Brian McCabe at the last second, killing a would-be breakaway.
Second period, 17:36, Panthers 1-0: Chara lets a couple slappers fly from the point with one getting deflected away from Clemmensen and the other finding the netminder’s breadbasket.
A decent power play for the B’s, but an unsuccessful one.
Second period, 19:11, Panthers 1-0: Boston will go on the power play as Wideman was taken down in the corner.
First intermission, Panthers 1-0: Ballard’s tally snapped a Rask shutout streak that lasted 121:42 and dated back to the third period against Tampa Bay on March 25.
First intermission, Panthers 1-0: It was an up and down frame for the B’s, who head to the locker room down by a goal.
Boston is outshooting Florida 10-8 but the Panthers have had more quality chances and should be feeling pretty good about this one coming out for the second period. One thing the B’s can be happy about is their physical play, but besides that, Claude’s crew needs to break out soon.
First period, 6:00 Panthers 1-0: Radek Dvorak just missed a great chance to put the Panthers up by a pair on a nice feed out front, but he lost control of it as he cocked back to fire.
First period, 7:05, Panthers 1-0: Marchand was looking to mix it up after the last whistle. I guess that’s the best way to fill in for Thornton.
Also, for all of you with your eyes on the draft, Toronto is up 1-0 on the Sabres.
First period, 10:40, Panthers 1-0: A huge hip check by Boychuk and a dandy of a leg save by Rask in the span of 15 seconds and this crowd is back into it.
First period, 12:45, Panthers 1-0: I know it’s April Fools’ Day, but this early deficit isn’t a funny prank.
Keith Ballard slipped one past Rask with a wrister from the high slot to put the Panthers on top early. It was Ballard’s seventh of the season.
Interesting change of pace for the B’s as their defense is struggling and the offense is flying high early here in the opening frame.
First period, 16:31, 0-0: Very strong shift by Paille as the winger nearly tipped in a Wideman shot from the point and followed that up with a wrap-around attempt a few moments later.
First period, 19:06, 0-0: Ryder just caught Michael Frolik with his head down (cleanly) at center ice and nearly took off his head. Frolik is now curled up at the end of the Florida bench.
7:07 p.m.: Congrats to Rask on winning the 7th Player Award. Nobody in the building was surprised at the choice. Rask will also be given a $5,000 donation to be made to the charitable organization of his choice.
7:00 p.m.: Shawn Thornton will be a healthy scratch Thursday night with Brad Marchand taking his spot.
6:46 p.m.: BC alum Scott Clemmensen is between the pipes for the Panthers.
Clemmensen spent last season in New Jersey and was tremendous filling in for Martin Brodeur during the future Hall of Famer’s injury. Clemmensen is just 7-6-1 on the season with a 3.22 GAA in 15 starts, a far cry from his 25-13-1 record and 2.39 GAA a year ago.
While at the Heights, Clemmensen went 99-35-10 with a 2.52 GAA and led the Eagles to a national title during his senior year in 2001.
6:22 p.m.: And now for something (almost) completely off topic.
Marek Malik, who had arguably one of the best shootout goals in the last decade as a member of the Rangers in 2005, had arguably the worst own-goal in the history of hockey on Wednesday night in the NLA playoffs.
6:15 p.m.: The Panthers fell to the Sabres Wednesday night in Buffalo 6-2, but the six goals against isn’t the ugliest stat line of the defeat.
The Panthers were outshot 41-15 by Buffalo and had just two shots in the second period and three in the third.
Leading the way for the Florida offense is Stephen Weiss (27 goals) and both Nathan Horton and Bryan McCabe (33 assists each).
3 p.m.: The Bruins 7th Player Award will be handed out before Thursday night’s tilt with the Panthers.
The past three 7th Player winners are David Krejci (2009), Milan Lucic (2008) and Tim Thomas (2007). In fact, Thomas also won it in 2006.
Will Krejci be another repeat winner? Will the team’s leader in points, Patrice Bergeron, bag the title? Is Tuukka Rask’s league-leading 2.02 GAA enough to take the hardware? Who is your choice for this year’s winner?
11:52 a.m.: D-man Andrew Ference (groin) will not be in the lineup for the fourth straight game and is likely to be out for the weekend. Hunwick will be filling in for Ference.
11:46 a.m.: Thanks to a Habs loss to the Canes on Wednesday night, Boston sits in seventh place.
The Flyers, B’s and Habs all have 82 points, but Boston has the fewest wins (35) and twice as many overtime losses (12) than the Flyers.
11:44 a.m.: Rask was the first goalie off the ice at the morning skate, indicating he will be between the pipes when the puck drops a little after 7 p.m.
Also worth noting: it’s Dennis Seidenberg’s first game against his former team. Since arriving in Boston, Seidenberg has been on a roll as the blue-liner has two goals, seven helpers and a plus-10 rating in 15 games with the B’s.
8 a.m.: The Bruins are down to their final six regular-season games as they welcome in the Panthers to Boston to kick off their April stretch run.
After squeezing by the Devils on Tuesday night, the B’s can bag a two-game winning streak before hitting the the road to face the Maple Leafs, who are itching to play spoilers to their division rivals.
These Panthers couldn’t be a better matchup for the Bruins. Florida has lost three in a row coming in and has dropped the previous two contests with Boston this season. The Panthers’ only win against the Black and Gold came back in early November, when they snuck by the Bruins 1-0 in a shootout at the Garden.
On Wednesday, the club officially welcomed in four new members to the family as they announced the signing of 2008 first-round draft pick Joe Colborne, 2009 first-rounder Jordan Caron, goalie Michael Hutchinson and defenseman Steven Kampfer, whose rights were acquired in a deal on deadline day.
