Here are your talking points from the Bruins' 3-0 over the WIld Thursday night:
GOLD STAR: Noel Acciari didn’t have a goal in the 3-0 win, but he was one of the best players on the ice for either side. Acciari had six shots on net along with three hits and eight shot attempts overall. That’s a heck of a game for the hard-hitting fourth line while he’s also playing center tonight as well. Acciari also finished with the primary assist on the key goal for the Bruins when he won a 50/50 puck battle with Anthony Bitetto and poked a puck to the wide open slot area of the ice. That’s where Joakim Nordstrom stepped into the puck and snapped a shot into the vacant net for Boston’s first goal of the game, and the eventual game-winner in a shutout win for the Black and Gold.
BLACK EYE: It looked like the Bruins pre-playoff nightmare was coming true at the start of the second period when Kevan Miller tumbled into the boards after a battle with Jordan Greenway, and then limped back to the B’s dressing room immediately afterward. That’s exactly what the B’s don’t want to see in the final two games of the regular season having already clinched the No. 2 seed in the Atlantic Division and home ice in the first round of the playoffs. Instead Miller returned for the end of the period, skated a shift and looked like whatever lower body ailment he was feeling really wasn’t that serious. So it appears the Bruins dodged a bullet there, but they also appeared to shut him down for the entirety of the third period. So stay tuned on that one.
TURNING POINT: The Bruins and Minnesota Wild both played sloppy and a little bit loose in the first period, and subsequently neither team was able to muster up a goal. That changed in the second period as the Bruins outshot the Wild by an 18-9 margin to really seize control of the game, and scored a grinding, hustle goal from their fourth line to gain the upper hand in the game. It was a hard-working score for Joakim Nordstrom that put the Bruins up by the single goal midway through the period and it was enough to lead the B’s to victory over a forgettable 60 minutes of hockey in Game No. 81 of the season.
HONORABLE MENTION: It was a pretty good NHL debut for Zach Senyshyn with four shots on net and seven shot attempts in over 12 minutes of ice time as he was using his speed to get into areas where he could get shots off. Then he was able to cash in on an empty net goal to close out the Boston scoring in the third period. He certainly didn’t look out of place and instead seemed pretty comfortable playing at the NHL level. That in and of itself is a good sign, but this is just a one-game treat for the former first round pick. He’s going to need to go back to Providence and really work on his game if he hopes to get a longer call-up with Boston somewhere down the line. But you have to start somewhere and it hasn’t been bad for the 22-year-old.
BY THE NUMBERS: 12-for-19 – the excellent face-off performance for third line center Charlie Coyle in his first game back in Minnesota after being traded to the Bruins.
Boston Bruins
QUOTE TO NOTE: “We’ve got some depth and that’s a good thing going into the playoffs. We found our game probably halfway through the first and stuck with it for the rest of the 50 minutes. That got us the result we wanted.” –David Backes to NESN on the B’s showing good depth in a win while players like Brad Marchand, Zdeno Chara and David Krejci all rested in Game No. 81.
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