PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The veterans drew the biggest cheers when the lineups were introduced before a sellout crowd of 11,400 at the Dunkin' Donuts Center, with Brad Marchand and Tim Thomas drawing especially loud ovations.
But when the Bruins' Black and White Game got under way, it was the youngsters who stole the show.
Alexander Khokhlachev, the youngest player in the Bruins camp who just turned 18 on Sept. 9, had the biggest night, opening and closing the scoring with a pair of goals to lead the lack squad to a 4-1 win.
"I just played my game," Khokhlachev said. "I sit in the meetings and hear what the coaches say and how they want to play, so for me I just play my game, which is a simple game."
It looked simple for Khokhlachev, who got things going 6:11 into the first period with a wicked wrister past Tuukka Rask from the right circle. That was the only goal Rask allowed on 16 shots before giving way to Michael Hutchinson halfway through the game.
Fellow youngster Ryan Spooner scored the lone goal for the White team, beating Tim Thomas with a bad-angle shot down low by the left post. Thomas stopped the other eight shots he faced, while Anton Khudobin stopped all 10 shots he faced in relief. Khudobin and Thomas were named the game's third and second stars, respectively, while Khokhlachev took top-star honors.
"In a game you can show more how you play hockey," Khokhlachev said. "Practice is good too, but in a game it's a different story. You go into a game and the coaches see what you can do."
Bruins assistant coach Doug Jarvis, who ran the Black team's bench, saw plenty from Khokhlachev and linemates Lane MacDermid and Kirk MacDonald. MacDermid scored the Black team's second goal, banging in a perfect feed from Matt Bartkowski, who sent the puck in from the left point to MacDermid at the right post.
"I thought we got a lot of energy out of the line with the kids on it, Koko's line," Jarvis said. "They gave us a lot of energy and contributed on the offense. We were trying to get a good evaluation on them and I thought they showed themselves well in this game."
Daniel Paille managed to keep the veterans from being completely shut out when he scored the third goal for the Black squad, though it did come on assists from youngsters Colby Cohen and Jamie Arniel. Cohen also set up Khokhlachev's final tally, taking a point-to-point pass from Andrew Ference and floating in a feed to Khokhlachev down low for a tap-in behind Hutchinson at the left post.
"It never hurts," Cohen said of getting two assists. "If I had a couple bounces I could have maybe had a couple more. You have good players out here moving the puck. It makes the game easy."
The youngsters may have stolen the show, but Cohen did admit that playing with the vets like his blue-line partner Ference helped make that possible.
"He's great to play with," Cohen said. "He makes the game so much easier with how smart he is."
