Before they headed into a shootout to settle Monday's clash in Florida, they made sure goalie Tuukka Rask was ready for the glorified skills competition that would determine the extra point at stake in the contest.
That may be the only worthy excuse for giving the Panthers as many breakaways in regulation and overtime as they got in the shootout. Rask stopped all but one of the four breakaways he faced when the Bruins actually had other skaters on the ice, albeit just not in the same zip code as Rask and the Bruins' net.
He did the same in the shootout, which went to an extra sudden-death round before the Bruins escaped Sunrise with a 3-2 victory.
"He was good," Bruins coach Claude Julien said of Rask, who is now 7-0-0 with an 0.94 GAA and .970 save percentage in his last seven games after Monday's 38-save performance. "I thought at times there were a lot of loose pucks around our net, but he stood there and made the saves.
"And I thought we had the edge in the shootout because he had some warm-ups during the game as far as the breakaways were concerned, so he was ready for that," Julien added with a wry smile. "I thought he played a real solid game and gave us a chance to win with some of the mistakes that we made tonight."
The mistakes were plentiful, but at least the Bruins were more competitive than they were in Saturday's lackadaisical 4-2 loss to Carolina. The Bruins didn't play their smartest game, but they were more aggressive and played like they wanted it more than they showed in a third-period collapse against the Hurricanes.
"I think we competed a little bit harder in certain areas," Julien said. "But again, I think we used the word alertness a while back and certainly the alertness wasn't there from our back end. When you give a team four breakaways you have to look at yourself and see where that alertness was. We certainly struggled in that area, but when you're not playing your best hockey you take wins for what their worth. Today was a win that we needed and we got it. We found a way to score those goals in the shootout."
Shawn Matthias had a pair of those breakaways. Rask denied him in the opening period, but in the second, Matthias had his revenge. Just after Boston took a 2-1 lead with a goal on a two-man advantage, Matthias stepped out of the box, got behind the defense and beat Rask to tie it.
Michal Repik had a chance to win it with just over a minute left in regulation when he had a breakaway, but Rask didn't give him an opening and Repik ended up shooting it wide. It was Kris Versteeg's turn with 16 seconds left in overtime, but Rask got a pad on that breakaway bid, and Zdeno Chara cleared the puck out of harm's way behind him.
"They had plenty of time to make a move," said Rask, who remains the NHL leader in GAA (1.61) and save percentage (.946). "It looked like they were waiting for me to make that first move and I didn't. The first guy missed the net, but the second one I stuck my leg out there and then Zee took care of the rest."
In the shootout, Rask stopped both Marcel Goc and Dmitry Kulikov on forehand attempts, but missed on a pokecheck against Stephen Weiss, who put Florida ahead 1-0 to open the third round.
Patrice Bergeron, who had both of Boston's goals in regulation, answered to extend the shootout to sudden death. And after Mikael Samuelsson lost control of the puck and couldn't get a shot off, David Krejci, who had his 11-game point streak snapped in the game, fired home the winner for Boston.
"I faced the same amount of breakaways in the game as in the shootout," Rask said. "I've been practicing all year, but it's a little different situation in a game. I always try to stay patient. I mixed in a pokecheck there which didn't go over very well, but good thing Bergy was able to tie the game there."
It wasn't the prettiest of victories, but the Bruins will take it, and they will look to build off it as they continue their road trip Tuesday night in Tampa Bay.
"I didn't think we played our best again," Rask said. "But we were able to get the win. It was a grind. There's still lots to improve. We have what, six games left before the All-Star break and we really want to finish these games on a good note to be able to enjoy that break."
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