Bruins Skate by Leafs Again

Rask starts and the Bruins win.

The Bruins handled the Toronto Maple Leafs for the second time in five days tonight. Tonight's victory wasn't as easy at the 7-2 shellacking on Saturday, but they jumped out to an early lead and held on for the victory by a score 5-2. Since Marc Savard has returned, the Bruins are 6-1-1, and their performance has improved on their power play (10/33 since November 23rd, the return date of Savy) and were 2 of 3 tonight.

• Tuukka Rask got the start in net after he beat Toronto on Saturday. Tonight Rask stopped 32 of 34 shots and made some nice saves in the third period after he surrendered two goals to let the Leafs back in the game. Rask continues to a be a stable backbone when he gets the nod for the B's between the pipes and is 9-2-2 in his starts 13 starts including an unbelievable 6-0-1 in his last 7 games.
• Defenseman Mark Stuart got the scoring started in the first period on a shot from the point after a pass from Johnny Boychcuk right after a faceoff win by Daniel Paille.
• Derek Morris scored a PP goal 35 seconds into the second period.
  
• In the second period after a stellar save by Rask which resulted in a long rebound to the point, David Krejci took the puck down the ice for a breakaway goal. This put the B's up 3-0 and was the game-winning goal.
• After two goals by the Leafs to start the third, Mark Recchi put home a rebound on a nice assist from Blake Wheeler during a power play. Recchi would then add an empty net goal in the final minutes.

The 16-9-5 Bruins are 2nd in the the Northeast Division and are 5th in the Eastern Conference. They now head to Long Island to face the 11-13-7 New York Islanders with a 7 o'clock faceoff. The B's are 1-1 against the young Islanders team.

A Celtics recap will be posted tomorrow mid-day.