Bruins sting Blue Jackets

Reeling from more injuries AND a shutout loss to the Lightning, the Bruins welcomed the sad-sack Blue Jackets and their booby-distracted GM, Tom Kozlowski to Boston for an afternoon tilt. The Bruins were also on edge as they knew Islanders GM Ryan Long was scouting the game in advance of their impending face off.

Hoping for an afternoon on cruise control, the Bruins found themselves in a bad spot almost immediately. With Matt Cooke serving time for a charging major, Tim Gleason worked his way behind the Bruins defense and scored the shorthanded goal to put Columbus up 1-0. Seven minutes later, a near identical situation occurred as Cooke and the Bruins' Lee Goren were sitting five for a fighting, with Cookie getting ejected for the spat. This time, Jeff Halpern beat the Bruins' defense and was fed a pass from Gleason to put the Blue Jackets up 2-0.

Thirty-six seconds later, the Bruins offense finally did something, as team scoring leader Jochan Hecht netted his twenty-first goal of the season in a four-on-four run off of Tim Connolly and Michael Therien assists to cut the deficit to one. However, that was the end of the scoring as the teams went to the lockerroom. Boston head coach Robbie Ftorek was notably upset after his squad took only five shots on goal in the period.

Andrew Raycroft also went ballistic, it was overheard, after the period and may have punched the injured Matt Walker in the hallway after the period. All rumors are just that, though, but grainy Bigfoot-like footage reveals something occuring in the hallway.

The second period did not see much more offensive output from the Bruins, who once again were outshot by the visitors, eleven to nine.

But this time around, it was quality over quantity as two Bruins shots made the twine tingle. Keith Tkachuk awoke from his offensive slumber, scoring his eighth of the season (in only the forty-fifth game of the season) at 02:30 to knot the game at two apiece.

From there, the period delved into hooliganism. Andy McDonald was whistled for charging at 03:20, a power play attempt the Bruins killed off successfully. Martin Grenier and Lee Goren fought to a draw three minutes later, and Goren was ejected for his second fight of the night.

Thirty seconds after the abbreviated brawl, Jay Harrison was sat two minutes for roughing. Martin Grenier was bounced from the game for boarding at precisely the same time - 12:55 - as Zdenek Kutlak was caught delivering a cross check. Finally, the ref's whistle got a chance to rest after Jay Harrison was penalized again for elbowing at 14:38.

The last call set up a Bruins power play which they attacked on. Richard Jackman, taking an Andy McDonald pass into the faceoff circle, fired the puck past Dan Blackburn to put the good guys up, 3-2, with a power play goal at 16:29.

Come the third period, the anxiety was in the air. Once again, the Blue Jackets were the more aggressive offensive team, which paid off as they tied the game at 05:31 on Christian Berglund's twenty-second goal of the season.

After the pugilism of the second period, the third was quiet, with nary a whistle. The teams both played conservative until 12:13 of the period, when Shawn McEachern skipped the puck across ice to Bill Guerin, who fed a speeding (well, for him) Pierre Turgeon for his third goal of the year and the game winner.

Twelve thousand, five hundred fifty-three gathered to see Andrew Raycroft improve to 18-15-3 on the season. Despite hanging the loss, Columbus took the two top game stars - Oliver Setzinger (0-1-1, +1 in 28 minutes) and Tim Gleason (1-1-2, +1, 30 minutes). Jochan Hecht (1-1-2, +1 in 23 minutes) took the third for the home team.

The Bruins travel to Long Island for their next game to face the team of the one dummy Scott doesn't need to get drunk to play ventriloquist with, Ryan Long.