Bruins Blank Senators 5-0

Prior to the Christmas break, the Bruins posted a 4-1 win over the Sabres on Saturday, followed by a 6-2 win in Nashville. Fully rested and with the team slowly recuperating from injuries, the boys were back at the Garden on Friday where they kept the scoring train rolling with a 5-0 win over a struggling Senators team.

It wasn’t just the Senators who struggled in the first period, Boston couldn’t find their legs and looked sloppy and uncoordinated — but the poor play stopped as they found an offense surge through the second and third periods.

“Yeah we got better and I thought the first maybe three, four shifts in that first we were okay,” said Bruins Head Coach Claude Julien. “Then we had a couple of bad shifts and they just kind of took it over; momentum shifted their way for the rest of the period. But we came back in the second obviously a little bit.”

The first goal of the game, his 11th of the season came from Jarome Iginla ( assists,Lucic, Krug) at 16:29 of the second period. But it was the third period that showcased a crumbling Senators team and a flourishing Bruins offense. 38 seconds into the period, David Krejci netted his 8th of the season with the help of defensive pairing Bartkowski and McQuaid.

It was yet again a stellar performance from Reilly Smith who pocketed his 13th and 14th of the season at 10:20 and 17:26 of the third. Chemistry has finally made it’s mark for the young forward and his line mates Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand, who both assisted on Smith’s first goal, and Bergeron on the second.

“That was definitely the case tonight where we were getting tons of chances in the first and mainly in the second and nothing was really going in,” said Smith in regards to the points his line has been producing. ” You’ve got to stay positive and if it’s not going in it’s just a matter of time.  We were creating great scoring chances, Marsh [Brad Marchand] and Berg [Patrice Bergeron] did a great job creating two-on-ones and odd man rushes.  Sooner or later it went in and it kind of came in a bunch.”

If the Senators fate hadn’t already been sealed, Marchand found the back of the net with a shorthanded goal at 19:33 of the third period for a final of 5-0. Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask tallied his fourth shutout of the season, stopping all 33 shots faced.

The sting of the loss may be short lived as both teams meet again tonight in Ottawa for a re-match.