Bruins put Columbus offense in straight "Jackets"

As the roadtrip that will not die continued, the Boston Bruins trekked into Columbus for their fourth game in as many days.

Riding a three game unbeaten streak - 2-1-1 on the road trip thusfar - the Bruins were starting to show some signs of weariness. Andrew Raycroft tripped over the blue line, in fact, during morning skate around.

But when the lights came on and the paid crowd of 10,090 filed into the scenic Nationwide Arena... the visitors knew it was game time.

The first period was played cleanly, with only Tim Gleason whistled for a charging call at 16:08 of the game. This was fairly amazing, given the two teams combine for more than thirty-five penalty minutes a game.

Shawn McEachern broke away at 08:46, stealing the puck from the Blue Jackets' Christian Berglund and his weak pass. As the crowd rose to its feet for goalminder Dan Blackburn, Danny Boy's eye caught a glimpse of the Frog, Bear & Wild Boar women - there cheering for Bruins GM Joshua Anderson for those big tips he used to leave... and McEachern poked it past Blackburn in the bottom stickside corner.

Come the second period, though, the Jackets resumed form, racking up eighteen minutes of penalties... and giving up Keith Tkachuk's fourth goal of the season at 17:05 when he took a frozen rope from Tim Connolly and redirected it from thirty feet out.

The Blue Jackets cut the lead to one goal less than two minutes into the third as David Vyborny was able to get a cheap one past Andrew Raycroft off a Corey Stillman pass. Raycroft found himself out of position, sprawled on the ice, as Vyborny was able to simply slide the puck around him for his tenth of the season.

That would be the end of the scoring, though, as Andrew Raycroft and the Bruins defense would stand tall. Raycroft improved his record to 7-10-2, stopping twenty-one of twenty-two shots on goal to earn the win - and the top Game Star.

Also earning game stars were Shawn McEachern (1-0-1, +1 in 15 minutes) and Keith Tkachuk (1-0-1, +Even in 21 minutes).

The Bruins game streak has two more days to go, visiting Toronto and Dallas in the next two days before resting on Thursday night, finally home to host the Blues. For now, though, GM Joshua Anderson and the Bruins will escape, claiming the women of Columbus - and victory!