Friday, December 23, 2011

Stanley Cup Champs Dominate Panthers

The Boston Bruins came out with an avalanche of goals in the first period and blew away the Florida Panthers 8-0 at the TD Garden on Friday night. Twelve seconds into the Panthers first power play, Brad Marchand skated around the Florida net, circled around the zone and then fired a shot from the right circle for a shorthanded goal at 5:56. The Bruins scored on their first power play at 13:40 when a Patrice Bergeron slap shot from top of zone caromed off the back half-wall where Milan Lucic followed with a crease shot. With 1:39 left, Chris Kelly won a defensive zone face-off, then Benoit Pouliot skated the puck to the other end of the rink, went around Dmitry Kulikov and finished with a backhand shot in the slot. Thirty-one seconds later, former Panther Dennis Seidenberg got his first goal of the season on a slap shot from the left point to make it 4-0. Jose Theodore was pulled from goal by Panthers coach Kevin Dineen after the first period ended and was replaced by Scott Clemmensen. It didn't help as Boston scored again less than four minutes into the second as another former Panther Gregory Campbell added to the rout as he went end-to-end and finished with a wrist shot from the high slot. The Bruins increased their lead to 6-0 on the power play at 15:50 as Bergeron skated through the right circle and his pass across the crease was deflected off Ed Jovanovski's skate into the Panthers net. Marchand got his second goal of the game 1:53 into the third period as he took a one-time slap shot from the right circle. He picked up the hat trick at 9:53 following a cross-ice pass by Tyler Seguin to him in the slot. Brad Marchand ended with three goals and two assists for a career-high five points in one game. Florida used a lineup of eleven forwards and seven defensemen for this game due to the recent glut of injuries to the squad. The Panthers will take several days off before playing home and face the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday.

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