Bruins Party Ruined by Flyers in Thrilling NHL Start
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October 7, 2011 TheFreshOutlook  |
Both Stanley Cup finalists, the Boston Bruins and the Vancouver Canucks, suffered defeat as the new NHL season kicked off.
It should have been a night of mass celebration for the Bruins as they unveiled the grand banner marking their 2011 triumph at TD Garden, but the new-look Philadelphia Flyers had other ideas.
In particular, goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov produced a string of stunning saves to deny the Bruins an equaliser in front of their vocal home support. He made 22 saves, including 17 from 17 in the final two periods to single-handedly frustrate what had been a pretty fluent Bruins attack.
The game got off to the perfect start for Boston. On the first power play of the night an exquisite blue line to blue line pass from Tyler Seguin was collected by Brad Marchand who steadied himself before firing across Bryzgalov to bring a loud roar from the crowd.
But the Flyers have made some good off-season acquisitions to improve their squad and it was two of them who turned the game on its head within a 47-second timeframe.
Claude Girouz fired them level on a power play in the final minute of the first period before Jakub Voracek, with just three seconds remaining, fired past Bruins’ ‘keeper Tim Thomas for the lead.
The Bruins came back ferociously as the game wore on but could not find a way past Bryzgalov. On the one occasion they found him stranded, Kimmo Timonen stuck out his stick to somehow stop the puck on the line.
In an equally thrilling encounter at Rogers Arena, the Pittsburgh Penguins also extolled defeat on the Vancouver Canucks via a shootout.
Despite missing Sidney Crosby they did have the returning Matt Cooke for the first time since March and he made a big impact on the evening.
Questions of a Stanley Cup hangover would have been on the minds of most Canucks fans after they fell 3-1 behind in the second period.
James Neal caught Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo out by netting from a tight angle via the 32-year-old’s foot to put the visitors in front.
Cooke then made it 2-0 from another power play after collecting a blind pass from Pascal Dupuis from behind the net.
“I had unbelievable support not only from my family but from my teammates and the organisation,” he said of his seven-month suspension for elbowing Ryan McDonagh of the New York Rangers. “It was a tough time for me. It was hard for me to watch my team battle in the playoffs without me. I feel like I owe them.”
Penguins’ goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury inadvertently kicked Maxim Lapierre’s effort into his own net but Cooke then restored the two-goal lead on the break with a fierce shot.
But towards the end of the second period Keith Ballard halved the deficit after some great build up play by the Sedin twins Daniel and Henrik, before the former levelled the scores.
With no further goals in normal or overtime the game went to a shootout, and the sell-out home crowd saw their side miss all their efforts, leaving Pittsburgh to celebrate a hard-fought win.
In the day’s third fixture, the Toronto Maple Leafs won their all-Canadian encounter with the Montreal Canadiens 2-0 thanks to goals from Dion Phaneuf and Matthew Lombardi.
By Leigh Gruffydd Sanders
[Image courtesy of Kevin Anderson]
