By Danny Picardand Joe Haggerty
CSNNE.com
BOSTON -- Dennis Wideman made his return to Boston Thursday night, but Tuukka Rask and Milan Lucic kept him and his Florida Panthers from getting the last laugh.
Wideman was traded to the Panthers in exchange for Nathan Horton and Gregory Campbell, and Horton picked up three assists on the night, including what turned out to be the game-winning goal in the first period.
But it was both Rask and Lucic who won the game for the B's. Rask made 41 saves in picking up his first win of the season, while Lucic scored the first three Bruins goals in the 4-0 win.
"It feels good. It feels good to not let your team down 'cause we are on a winning streak now, and keep that thing going," said Rask. "But it'sjust a win, though. Not the first gameI've won with the Bruins, but it feels good."
Lucic gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead with 4:23 left in the first period, after he took a Horton drop pass in the right circle, cut out front and wristed a laser past Florida goaltender Tomas Vokoun that hit the top-right corner of the post and went in.
He made it 2-0 by sniping the top-left corner from the right circle on a 2-on-1 with 5:18 left in the third period. He picked up the hat trick by putting in the rebound off of a Patrice Bergeron miss, just 15 seconds later.
Shawn Thornton made it 4-0 with 3:54 left in regulation to finish things off.GOLD STAR: Got to give it to Tuukka Time taking its first starring role of the season. Nobody would have predicted that it could have taken five-plus weeks for Tuukka Rask to record his first win of the season, but there it is. Rask finished with 41 saves and managed to avoid any of the funky bounces or strange goals that seemed to bite at him in his five other previous efforts. He again looked like the calm, confident phenom that dominated through long stretches of last season.BLACK EYE: Claude Julien joked after the game that David Booth's arms were going to be sore on Friday after hoisting 14 shots on net from all over the ice, and seemed intent on trying to beat the Bruins all by himself. He finished a minus-2 on the night, and Booth, Stephen Weiss and Cory Stillman all were badly outplayed by the B's "heavy" line.TURNING POINT: Protecting a 1-0 lead, the Bruins took a couple of penalties in the second period and allowed Florida several opportunities to get back into the game. But the B's penalty killers killed off both Panthers' power plays and Boston ended up snuffing out all five Panthers power plays over the course of the win. The kills, and Tuukka Rask, ended up setting the tracks for the third=period explosion that turned into Milan Lucics crazy fedora party.BY THE NUMBERS: 10the number of goals for Milan Lucic this season, which is one more than he had all of last season and now leads the Bruins. To put it in perspective, Lucic is tied with Alex Ovechkin in goals scored this season and appears to be well on his way toward ascending to another level of hockey stardom this season.QUOTE TO NOTE: "Rask keeps an upbeat attitude the whole time. Hes happy for what's going on here. He doesn't put himself ahead of anyone. So we talked before the game that we wanted to get one for him." Shawn Thornton, talking about the team pulling together to get Tuukka Rask his first win of the season.INJURY UPDATE: Patrice Bergeron blocked a shot with his left leg in the first period and left the ice shortly, but returned and played the rest of the game. Shawn Thornton had his nose bloodied after fighting Darcy Hordichuk, but finished out the game and appeared to be fine postgame aside from spitting a little blood. But thats nothing to a hockey player.
Boston Bruins
Danny Picard is on Twitter at http:twitter.comdannypicard
Joe Haggerty can be reached at jhaggerty@comcastsportsnet.com. Follow Joe on Twitter at http:twitter.comHackswithHaggs
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