Buffalo @ Boston - 01/02/2007

The starting lineup for tonight's game is:

Sturm - Savard - Murray
Allen - York
Thomas

Period 1

Excellent period with a lot of energy and hitting. This is the aggression I mentioned they lacked last game. Three minutes into the game the intensity paid off with a great feed from Murray and Savard to set up a score by Marco Sturm. The aggression is having the natural side affect of two penalties thus far but they are worth it. Thomas and the defence have been playing well with multiple hits coming from the defencmen. The biggest hit came from, of all people, PJ Axelesson on Paille. Axelsson has just gotten an interference call for "knocking" over the goalie Biron. Biron though embellished the act by falling over dramatically. The referees have decided to give Biron a diving call as well to even it up. Not much else going on in the period, pretty much back and forth action. Final shots for period one are Buffalo 12, Boston 8.

Period 2

Thirty seconds into the second pressure by the Bruins forces Tallinder to get a holding call. Nothing doing on that penalty and soon after Savard was picked by Lydman with no call and Drury walked out front and scored on Thomas. Blatant missed call. On the other end of the ice Kalina got a hooking penalty after slowing down Primeau as he drove out front to the net. Mara just checked Briere with a great hit, unfortunately they both fell down. Sounds normal but Mara was given a holding call because Briere was holding his arm on the way up!?! On the power play Chris Drury scored, check that, Brad Stuart scored. The puck was passed out front and it hit Stuart's skate and went in. Boyes is squaring off with Toni Lydman. Boyes got in a few good shots and then got Lydman's jersey up over his head, and just pummeled him until the refs came in. Boyes sliced his finger on Lydman's visor and Lydman went to his dressing room for an unknown (smashed face) injury. Nice to see Boyes kick Lydman's ass. He has been playing well in his 4th line roll tonight, showing a lot of energy. It's really unfortunate that Buffalo is winning this game because Boston has controlled the tempo of this game. Some pretty bad officiating and an unlucky bounce. Great setup by Bergeron for Kessel but Biron stopped it. Paille as received a penalty with less than a minute left in the second and will have 1:05 left to serve when the third starts. Shots after two periods are Boston 22, Buffalo 18. 2-1 Buffalo

Period 3

Well I missed the opening of the period due to "The Office" I take it nothing happened as it is still 2-1 for Buffalo. Mair hit Murray into the boards and went immediately to the dressing room. Off a face-off with 14 minutes left in the third, a quick pass from the draw to Pominville and he scores on a bullet shot past Thomas. Another quick shot off the face-off but Thomas was able to stop this one. End to end action with two great chances by Boston just after Tenkrat got out of the penalty box and Biron had to make two greats saves. Seven minutes left in he game and the Bruins are running out of time. They need to get a quick one to even have a chance of taking this to OT. Thomas just came up big on a point blank Pominville shot off a Briere set-up. Primeau has just gone off with four minutes left in the third for hooking, and 10 seconds in Drury evens things up with a hooking call of his own. After the short PP ended for the Bruins Murray received another penalty and then 20 seconds later Paetsch even it up. The Bruins pulled Thomas for the extra attacker but to no avail as Buffalo holds on to win 3-1. Final shot totals are Boston 34, Buffalo 28.

Even though they lost it was a great effort and a pretty good game. They showed a lot more heart and intensity than the last five games combined.