By Luke Coughlan/DFP Staff
The Boston Bruins had never beaten the Minnesota Wild at home coming into their contest at the TD Garden on Thursday evening. Some things never change.
The Bruins (21-12-6), suffered a 3-1 loss to the Wild (20-15-5), despite getting 31 saves from goaltender Tuukka Rask between the pipes. The loss is their sixth in as many games against the Wild at the Garden, and drops the Bruins’ all-time record versus the Wild to 2-9-0.
The Bruins brought a 1-1 tie into the third period only to see the Wild go ahead on a Marc Savard turnover to Cal Clutterbuck deep in the Bruins’ zone that the Minnesota forward wristed over Rask’s left shoulder.
“We were a tired group and in our zone for a bit,” Savard said. “I wanted to get a high flipper out in the zone to get a change but the puck never left the ice.”
Instead, Clutterbuck had the puck at the edge of the left faceoff circle with a wide open lane to the net in front of him. The right winger had plenty of time to size up his shot, and it paid off. The goal, at 2:22 of the third period, put the Bruins in a hole that they would not be able to escape.
“Yeah, you know, those kind of shots, high glove-side, what you dream about, making the big glove save,” Rask said. “But, you know, it hit my glove or maybe a bar or something. But, you know, tough break.”
Bruins coach Claude Julien benched Savard for his mistake until the final minute of play, but the act did not light a big enough fire under the B’s to result in the equalizer.
“I think when you make a mistake like that everybody’s got to be accountable,” Julien said. “And, you know, it’s one of those things that happens throughout a game and from the first player to the last player you want to make sure that everybody understands that [because] it was a mistake that you don’t expect a guy like that to make [it] doesn’t mean that you lose confidence in him.
“Because you’re gonna go right back with him next game and you hope that they bounce back. That’s what coaches do. They coach. And that’s what I did.”
Wild goalie Jose Theodore and an astute Wild defensive corps kept the Bruins out of the net and out of the game for the remainder of the contest.
With 1:06 remaining in the game and the Bruins still searching for offense, defenseman Zdeno Chara found himself with the puck with traffic in front of the net.
Theodore saw Chara’s slapper from 56 feet from the time it left his stick up until it was safely secured in his glove. It was the netminder’s 34th save of the game, and it was the Bruins’ last chance to get the equalizer. But Theodore made the save despite having multiple men in front of him, and it all but sealed the game.
Julien pulled goalie Tuukka Rask for an extra attacker in the final minute of the game, but Clutterbuck promptly took control of the puck, made his way down the ice and fed center Mikko Koivu for an easy tip into the open net at 19:17 of the third period to ice the victory.
It was that kind of night for the B’s. Not only did the Bruins lead the Wild in shots with a 36-34 edge, Rask stood on his head for the second straight game. The netminder stopped 32 shots and earned a diving save to his left at the 17:37 mark of the second period to rob Martin Havlat of the go-ahead goal.
“I just saw it last-second,” Rask said. “I got scored on the two-on-one [earlier in the game]. I didn’t want to cheat, so I waited, waited and the guy made a nice pass to the backdoor [to Havlat] and I just dove there and it hit my glove.”
That stop came 6:47 after Steve Kampfer scored his third goal in five games to tie the game at one at the 10:50 mark. Kampfer was the beneficiary of a juicy rebound off of a Patrice Bergeron shot that came right to him at the right faceoff circle. The defenseman wristed the puck over Theodore’s left shoulder from 17 feet to knot things up for the remainder of the second period.
The Wild’s first goal of the night came four seconds into their first power play opportunity at 4:45 of the second period. Shawn Thornton was sent off for hooking at 4:41 after Brent Burns fell to the ice. Replays revealed after the fact that Burns had slipped or was trying to draw the call, because the blade of Thornton’s stick did not result in the fall.
Nevertheless, Patrick O’Sullivan won the first faceoff of the power play and got the puck to Martin Havlat, who drove his way right through the Bruins defense for a backhander from 14 feet that beat Rask.
“Tuukka was awesome again,” said Thornton. “I think its awful that that kid plays so good for us all the time and we don’t get the wins for him. We care about him and we should probably show it in a better way. He stood on his head for us pretty much every night and, I don’t know, his save percentage is .940 or something stupid like that. That should be good enough to win a lot of hockey games so we have to look ourselves in the mirror as far as that goes.”
Rask was starting his third straight game, his longest streak of the season, and the loss dropped him to 3-7-1 on the season. His .927 save percentage is fourth in the NHL.
The Bruins went 0-for-4 on the man advantage on the night, oftentimes looking sharper at even strength than on the power play. After forcing Theodore to make four saves in their first two power plays in the first period, the Bruins failed to register a shot on goal in their other two power plays.
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