The Ottawa Senators gained ground on the Boston Bruins in the race for the last wild card playoff spot with a 6-4 win Thursday night, and it was the performance of the Kyle Turris line that propelled the home team to victory.
Turris scored twice, including the opening goal just 19 seconds into the game, and Milan Michalek scored later in the period to tie the score 2-2 going into the first intermission. Michalek also earned two assists, while Mark Stone tallied three assists. The Michalek-Turris-Stone line combined for nine points (three goals, six assists).
Turris, in particular, played an excellent game. He finished with three points (two goals, one assist) on two shots and drove puck possession (57.14 Corsi-for percentage) at even strength against likely Selke Trophy winner Patrice Bergeron. In fact, Thursday wasn’t the only time Turris has played well against Bergeron this campaign.
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These are the kinds of performances Ottawa envisioned when it acquired Turris — a former No. 3 overall draft pick — from the Arizona Coyotes in 2011.
— Tuukka Rask had a .952 save percentage and a 4-1-1 record in six March starts before giving up five goals against the Senators. Boston’s No. 1 goaltender wasn’t at fault for all of those goals because the defense in front of him wasn’t good throughout the game — Ottawa had a 35-22 edge in scoring chances, per War on Ice.
The Bruins have lost eight of the last nine games in which Rask has given up three or more goals, which helps show the slim margin for error he’s had all season. The team’s inability to score goals consistently has put tremendous pressure on Rask, and he’s responded with a .924 save percentage on the season.
Boston wouldn’t be in a playoff spot without Rask’s .934 save percentage since Jan. 1, the third-best mark in the league during that span.
— Ottawa is only two points behind Boston for the a wild-card playoff spot, with a game in hand. The Senators are 13-1-1 in their last 15 games.
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— The Matt Bartkowski-Dennis Seidenberg pairing was on the ice for Ottawa’s first three goals and were out shot at even strength throughout the game. B’s head coach Claude Julien had to shuffle his bottom-two pairings as a result.
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— Ryan Spooner scored a power-play goal — his second tally of the game — to end Boston’s drought with the man advantage. The Bruins were in an 0-for-15 slump on the power play before that goal.
Spooner has two 2-goal games against his hometown team this season.
— Carl Soderberg and Torey Krug ended 24-game and 14-game goalless droughts, respectively. Krug finished with a multi-point game.
— Senators goalie Andrew Hammond, aka “The Hamburglar,” gave up more than two goals for the first time in 13 starts this season. He allowed two goals on the first four shots he faced, but recovered nicely after that with 29 saves on the next 31 shots.
— Michalek scored his 13th goal of the season in the first period. It’s also the 200th goal (109 with Ottawa, 91 with San Jose) of his NHL career.
— The Bruins assigned goaltender Jeremy Smith back to the Providence Bruins on Thursday. He was the backup goaltender in Boston’s 2-1 shootout loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday night.
Thumbnail photo via Marc DesRosiers/USA TODAY Sports Images
