Luck of the Irish! Boston Bruins Snap 4-Game Losing Streak

The Boston Bruins have seen better days.

They have lost seven of their last seven games and have not earned a point in the last four games.

Boston lost their top of the Northeast Division standing when they lost and the Ottawa Senators defeated the Montreal Canadiens. The resulting win sent the Bruins from second to seventh in the Eastern Conference.

The Bruins looked to regain some ground as they came back home on St Patrick's Day. One of the happiest days in Boston as it is arguably the most Irish city in the United States.

Bruins got scored on, and they were scored on in bunches. The Bruins were outscored 40-24 in the month of March this far. For a team that is losing is one thing, but to be outscoring opponents 226-174 with a plus-52 goal differential (tops in the league), their offence was hemorrhaging.

With their offense suffering, the talents of Nathan Horton and Rich Peverley were sorely missed. Without the members of the top and third line, the Bruins were having a hard time getting their lines to click as when they were in the lineup. This was a team that was hard to play against when the offense is pressuring and giving the defense time to cut off their opponents.

Today, they took on the East's fifth-place Philadelphia Flyers. The Flyers were 8-2-0 going into the day and won their last two games. They were looking to add to that total on the seemingly down and out Bruins.

Boston had not scored the opening goal since March 3rd when they played the New York Islanders. They have only won two games when they were scored on first this month.

The B's finally opened up the scoring. Chris Kelly jumped in on a short rebound off Philly Goalie Ilya Bryzgalov's left pad from Benoit Pouliot's shot from the short point.

The Bruins extended that lead with a nice setup. Brad Marchand slipped a backhand to Patrice Bergeron who skated from the corner just to the rear left of Bryzgalov.  

He quickly slipped a pass to Tyler Seguin who was right in the middle of a triangle of Flyer players, and he one-timed with a redirect through the five-hole on Bryzgalov—2-0 after the opening period.

In the second frame, the lone goal was scored by Matt Read. Danny Briere shot it from the point and Read...well read it right and tipped the puck in for his 20th of the season and closed the Bruins lead in half.

In the final frame, the Flyers did not want to go away. With less than five minutes to play, Braydon Coburn made a shot from the point. Jakob Voracek was in front of Tim Thomas, and he tipped it in to knot the game up. That was eventually the goal that forced OT.

Neither goalie was solved in the extra fun period so the game went to Extra Extra Fun...the shootout...

The first four shooters of David Krejci, Matt Read, Tyler Seguin and Claude Giroux all got their attempts past their opposing goalies.

Bergeron was the third-round shooter for the Bruins, and he buried his chance by wristing it past Bryzgalov's right stick side.

Briere had to score his chance to continue the tilt. Briere went in fast but held up at the last 10 feet to try and open Thomas up. He wristed at shot to Thomas' left, but the Tank had it all bottled up.

The Bruins won their first game in five contests, and Tim Thomas goes 6-0 in the shoot out this season.

With the win, the Bruins retake the top of the Northeast Division going up a point on the Ottawa Senators.

The Sens played against the Toronto Maple Leafs who are playing the spoiler role and defeated them to keep the B's on top and retaining second place in the Eastern Conference.

This is Cory Ducey saying "Hit Hard, But Keep It Clean."