No coincidence that ‘nice, steady, solid game' for Rask brings end to B's slump

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TORONTO – It might be oversimplifying it to say the Bruins go as goaltender Tuukka Rask goes, but at the same time it’s difficult to argue the point.

The Bruins ended a four-game losing streak with a 4-2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Center, and not-so-coincidentally, Rask had his best game of the month in stopping 29 shots.

It was as much about sound defense played in front of Rask after the B's had allowed 15 goals in the previous four games, but just as important, the Bruins netminder didn’t let any easy ones by him as he’d done in recent losses to the Canadiens and the Panthers. Instead, Rask held strong stopping 14 of 15 shots in the second period as the Bruins went through one of their semi-regular doldrums in the middle 20 minutes. He was only beaten by an Auston Matthews high-stick tip from the slot while the Bruins regained their bearings.

“He was really good. From our perspective, the first goal [you ask] was it lucky and from their perspective, it’s a good hand/eye coordination play,” said Bruce Cassidy. “The other goal he’s trying to recover after we broke down and they made a good play. I don’t fault him for either goal. Rebound control was good. I thought he kept the front of the net clean for the most part, so no hairy moments for him either. It was a nice, steady, solid game for him that we needed and we’re accustomed to. He gave it to us.”

The recent play of Rask wasn’t a huge concern to the Bruins given how dominant he’d been in the opening month of October, but there’s also no denying that part of the B’s winning formula is elite goaltending. When they get anything less than that, the results tend not to follow as exemplified in the four-game losing stretch.

Rask was obviously pleased with getting the W, but was just as happy to see his team off the schneid after spinning their wheels for a week-plus.

“I think just for the team we’d let our game slip the past four, whatever, or five games. We’d played parts of good games, but we collapsed too much,” said Rask, who stopped 29 of 31 shots overall Friday. “For myself, too, it was good to bounce back and get a win. So hopefully we can build on this.”

Rask still has an .896 save percentage in November, so he’s got some work to do to climb out of the mini-funk that met him at the beginning of the month. Still, it looks like both Rask and the B’s are ready to break out again after a strong, necessary performance in a win over their rivals in Toronto.

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