PHILADELPHIA – The calendar might have changed to December, but the streaking Bruins are still just as red-hot as they were at the end of November.
Behind a strong early start where the Bruins withstood some cheap shots from the Broad Street Bullies, Boston took care of business with a 3-0 win over the Flyers that dealt Philly its 10th loss in a row.
Conversely, the Bruins have won six of their past seven and have now won two in a row with Tuukka Rask between the pipes after the goaltender ended his own personal losing streak earlier this week.
Ryan Spooner got the Bruins ahead early with his first goal of the season in the first period. Noel Acciari hit the speeding Spooner with a pass in stride and the Bruins center put a slick move on Flyers goalie Brian Elliott for the score. The Bruins extended it with a pair of goals in the second period after the Flyers threw high, heavy hits to the heads of both Brad Marchand and Charlie McAvoy to close out the first.
Marchand set up the first goal after controlling an offensive zone face-off, and fed David Pastrnak in the slot for his 13th goal of the season. Than Marchand followed by putting away a chance opened up by a Charlie McAvoy pass from high-to-low into the slot area as well.
It appeared the Flyers scored at the end of the second period to begin chipping away at the Bruins lead, but a B’s bench challenge overturned the Claude Giroux goal. It was ruled that Wayne Simmonds interfered with Rask after throwing a quick elbow to his head just before the puck arrived in the crease area. The overturned goal effectively took the wind of Philly’s sails with such a fragile hockey team, and Rask ended up making 28 saves for his first shutout of the season.