Final, Bruins 3-2: Just 54 seconds into overtime, and Brad Marchand wins the hockey game for the Bruins.
Marchand ripped a shot from the left point, and that’s it and that’s all. The Bruins’ losing streak ends at two.
End third period, 2-2: We’re heading to overtime. The horn sounded, and 60 minutes won’t be enough to settle this one.
Third period, 17:58, 2-2: Brad Marchand came this close to picking a corner, but it looked like Marek Mazanec might have gotten it with this handle of his stick and the puck may have also hit the crossbar.
Either way, it doesn’t find the back of the net, despite Marchand’s best efforts.
Third period, 14:35, 2-2: We have a tie game again.
A loose puck bounced out to Shea Weber, and that usually means problems for opposing goalies, and this was no different. The Nashville captain absolutely blasted one from the high-right slot that Niklas Svedberg had no chance to stop.
Third period, 12:29, Bruins 2-1: Jarome Iginla is on quite the roll now, and his latest goal has the Bruins in front.
Iginla just did what he’s done so much this season and later in his career by going to the net — Milan Lucic made sure to reward his linemate. Lucic made an unbelievable pass from the left wing onto the tape of Iginla’s stick as the winger had gone right to the net and put home the go-ahead goal.
Third period, 11:00, 1-1: Zdeno Chara made the highlight reels last year when he carried the puck to the net before scoring against the Panthers.
He almost did the same thing here, but instead of going with the backhand, he went for a wraparound. That was stoppped, though, and it remains tied.
Third period, 8:00, 1-1: The Bruins are thoroughly dominating play right now, and they almost took the lead.
Matt Bartkowski snuck in the back door and was fed a pass, and it looked like he had a fairly open look at the net. However, Marek Mazanec was able to make a pretty spectacular save, his best of the night to keep this a tie game.
Third period, 4:57, 1-1: It’s a tie hockey game.
Johnny Boychuk doesn’t score a lot of goals, but when he does, he usually seems to score some big goals. Boychuk just jumped into the rush as the B’s carried the puck into the offensive zone. Ryan Spooner found Boychuk coming into the zone late and fed him the puck. Boychuk had Marek Mazanec thinking glove side before the Bruins defenseman ripped a shot over the blocker.
Third period, 4:00, Predators 1-0: The Bruins’ second line has been their best all night, and they came close to tying the game.
Patrice Bergeron was able to steal a puck in the neutral zone and get the Bruins going back the other way with numbers. That eventually led to a chance for Reilly Smith who shot wide from the right wing. We’ll have to see if that gives the Bruins some momentum.
Third period, 2:00, Predators 1-0: The Bruins weren’t able to capitalize on the power play to begin the period. They’ll have to try and find another way to tie this game.
Third period, 0:01, Predators 1-0: The third period is underway with the Bruins owning about 1:48 of power-play time.
End second period, Predators 1-0: The second period has ended, and the Bruins find themselves trailing by a goal.
They will get almost an entire power play to begin the third period, though.
Second period, 19:48, Predators 1-0: The Bruins are going to get a power play in the final seconds of the second and maybe into the third.
Eric Nystrom was called for interference, and BOston gets its second power play.
Second period, 18:04, Predators 1-0: The Bruins aren’t doing much offensively, bur they haven’t made any mistakes that Nashville could take advantage of — until now.
The Bruins got caught in the middle of a change, and Mike Fisher was the beneficiary of a long pass into the neutral zone and he carried it into the zone. He put a shot on goal that Niklas Svedberg stopped, but Viktor Stalberg followed up with the rebound and banged it by the goalie.
Second period, 16:07, 0-0: Seth Jones is going to be a really, really good player. He’s actually already a pretty solid player as it is.
He just went end to end and worked around Adam McQuaid in the Boston end and put a shot on Niklas Svedberg that the goalie was able to make a kick save on to keep the game scoreless.
Second period, 15:31, 0-0: Niklas Svedberg isn’t standing on his head or anything like that, but the rookie goalie has been very sharp in his NHL debut.
He’s now stopped all 18 shots he’s faced up to this point, including a shoulder save on Craig Smith a few moments ago.
The Bruins, meanwhile, have just two shots on goal in the second period.
Second period, 12:41, 0-0: Barry Trotz is going to use Nashville’s timeout here, and that comes after a great shift from the Bruins’ third line.
Ryan Spooner was fantastic for the last 30 seconds or so, singlehandedly generating a pair of chances for that line. The best came when he was able to skate around a pair of Predators before finding Matt Fraser on the right wing, but Fraser ripped his shot wide of the net.
Second period, 9:31, 0-0: Daniel Paille just had a near scoring chance, thanks to a nice play from Gregory Campbell.
Campbell won a puck battle behind the Nashville net before flinging the pass in front to Paille, but Paille couldn’t quite get the deflection in front of the net.
That was easily the Bruins’ best chance of the period.
Second period, 6:30, 0-0: The Bruins’ fourth line was pretty good in the first period, but here in the second period, they were just under pressure from Nashville.
The Predators put the pressure on deep in the Boston zone and that produced a shot from the half wall on the left wing from Matt Hendricks. He put the shot on net that Niklas Svedberg stopped with his stick and then gloved the deflection.
Second period, 4:24, 0-0: Not a whole lot going on at all here in the second period.
The Bruins’ first line just had a pretty strong shift in the Nashville zone, but they had very little to show for it. The sustained offensive zone pressure was largely eaten up by David Krejci possessing the puck and looking for something to open up. Much of the possession was on the perimeter and didn’t get a shot on goal, as the possession ended with a shot wide from Zdeno Chara from the point.
Second period, 0:01, 0-0: The second period has begun following a scoreless first period.
End first period, 0-0: The horn just sounded on the first period of this one, and the score is the same as it was when we got underway.
Neither team scored, as the Bruins outshot Nashville 11-8 in the first.
First period, 16:53, 0-0: Matt Hendricks had an open cage, but Matt Bartkowski made a nice play to keep the puck out of the net.
A shot toward the Bruins’ net deflected off of Bartkowski’s stick and through his legs to Matt Hendricks. The Nashville forward looked to have an opening, but Bartkowski was able to just barely get a stick on the Hendricks shot and it sent the shot wide.
First period, 14:38, 0-0: Nice job by Bruins defenseman Matt Bartkowski as he just jumped into a play and was able to secure the puck at the top of the slot before skating to his left and putting a shot on goal.
Now that he’s getting some pretty consistent run at this level, he’s starting to look more and more comfortable and consistent. The importance of that can’t be overstated given the injury situation this season.
First period, 13:03, 0-0: The Boston first line, whether at even strength or on the power play, has been really sharp so far.
That just resulted in a scoring chance in the slot for Jarome Iginla who turned and put a shot on goal, but that was stopped by Marek Mazanec.
First period, 10:18, 0-0: We talked a little earlier about how the Bruins’ third line would obviously benefit from the return of Carl Soderberg.
So far, that’s been the case, as they just turned in a solid shift in which they hemmed in the Predators. Ryan Spooner just had the line’s first shot on goal.
First period, 8:00, 0-0: The Bruins were able to kill off the Daniel Paille, thanks to a couple of saves from Niklas Svedberg as well as the post.
Craig Smith had the best chance of the man-advantage when he ripped a slap shot from the top of the right faceoff circle. The shot beat Svedberg glove side, but the puck rang the post or cross bar before deflecting out of play.
First period, 5:45, 0-0: The Predators are now going to get their chance on the power play, which should be a good test for the Bruins after a sloppy showing on the PK on Tuesday night.
Daniel Paille was called for tripping, and the B’s will have to go to work against a top-10 power play.
First period, 3:20, 0-0: The Bruins put four shots on goal during their first power play of the night, but none of those shots found the back of the net.
All things considered, though, it was a solid power play with a lot of offensive zone time for the B’s, but they couldn’t quite convert.
First period, 3:05, 0-0: The Bruins are going to get the game’s first power play, thanks to a questionable call.
Seth Jones was called for holding after pulling down Daniel Paille as the forward raced into the zone. It didn’t look like there was a lot there, but the call was made regardless.
First period, 0:01, 0-0: The game is underway from TD Garden.
6:50 p.m.: Pregame warmups just wrapped up at TD Garden, where the Bruins are looking to avoid their first three-game regulation losing streak since March of 2012.
The B’s, as we’ve mentioned, have Dougie Hamilton back for this one. It appears as if he’ll start the game alongside Zdeno Chara on the B’s top defensive pairing.
Here are the rest of the Boston lines, according to the pregame line rushes.
Milan Lucic — David Krejci — Jarome Iginla
Brad Marchand — Patrice Bergeron — Reilly Smith
Carl Soderberg — Ryan Spooner — Matt Fraser
Daniel Paille — Gregory Campbell — Jordan Caron
Zdeno Chara — Dougie Hamilton
Matt Bartkowski — Johnny Boychuk
Torey Krug — Adam McQuaid
6:10 p.m.: Carl Soderberg is one of two Bruins regulars set to return tonight (Dougie Hamilton being the other), and that’s good news for the B’s.
It’s especially good news given how Soderberg and the rest of his line — Ryan Spooner and Matt Fraser — have played together this season. Injuries have given that trio some playing time over the last few weeks, and they have responded well.
Spooner’s speed and playmaking ability are probably the biggest reason, but his wingers have some size and ability to finish around the net as well. The trio isn’t exactly piling up points at the moment, but they are getting chances and they’re generating momentum. That’s something that’s apparent by just watching, and it’s also backed up by advanced statistics. Puck possession stats indicate they’re getting the better of the chances when they’re on the ice. Soderberg’s injury came as they were starting to develop chemistry, so the Bruins are obviously hoping they’re able to pick up where they left off last week when Soderberg was hurt.
2:30 p.m.: We know that Niklas Svedberg will get the start in net for the Bruins, and there won’t be any surprise over the Nashville goalie, either.
Marek Mazanec will make the start between the pipes for the Preds. He didn’t start the Bruins’ win on Dec. 23 in Nashville, but he came on in relief for Carter Hutton after Hutton gave up three first-period goals. Mazanec ended up allowing three goals as well, but he was certainly much sharper than Hutton and was victimized by a hot Boston power play.
1 p.m.: Niklas Svedberg was supposed to make his NHL debut last week in Ottawa, but a couple of Bruins injuries screwed up that plan. On Thursday night, however, Svedberg will actually get his chance.
The young netminder was recalled from Providence on Thursday morning, and he will make his NHL debut against the Nashville Predators. In addition to getting a look at what Svedberg can offer, the B’s will also be looking to get back on the winning track. They lost two in a row, which includes dropping a 5-3 decision to the lowly New York Islanders on Tuesday night and will try to regain their winning ways against Nashville.
The Predators are certainly a candidate to help the B’s straighten things out and break in Svedberg. Nashville has had a disappointing season, and the Bruins have already taken advantage of that once this season. Boston was in Nashville a little more than a week ago where they went in and pasted the Predators prior to the Christmas break. Boston used the power play in a big way en route to a 6-2 win. They’re hoping for more of the same Thursday.
The Bruins’ quest to get a little healthier will take a couple of big steps Thursday night as well. Defenseman Dougie Hamilton — out since suffering a lower-body injury on Dec. 8 — is expected to return. As is forward Carl Soderberg who has been out for almost a week with some concussion-like symptoms.
Puck drop from a snowy TD Garden is slated for 7 p.m.
