Boston Bruins: Andrew Ference, Other D-Men Making Crucial Contributions

Andrew Ference’s deciding goal in Monday night’s 1-0 win over Montreal may have been the unlikeliest of unlikely twists for the Boston Bruins. But on the cusp of the centuries-old holiday born in nearby Plymouth, Boston buffs can be thankful that their team has a resort that reliable.

After all, top gun Tyler Seguin is goal-less in his last four outings. Runner-up Milan Lucic is barren in his last five. David Krejci is in a six-game slump. And Patrice Bergeron, Nathan Horton and Brad Marchand have a combined five goals in the last five games.

To have augmented their winning streak to nine games as they did Monday night, the Bruins need to have had some sort of reinforcement.

Lately, the most outstanding backup has come from the backline, an element that was grossly absent during the vinegary 3-7-0 run in October. And the two most prominent specimens have come off the sticks of arguably the two rarest goal-getters of all the skaters on Claude Julien’s roster.

The 13-year veteran Ference, who also pitched in firsthand to Boston’s previous win over the New York Islanders on Saturday, had never once tuned the mesh in back-to-back NHL games. The only time Ference has ever tallied twice in a game was on Jan. 5, 2004, when his Calgary Flames blanked the New York Rangers, 5-0. Now, all of a sudden, Ference has his first regular-season game-winning strike since his sophomore season with Pittsburgh in 2000-01, only the third of his career. And with only 17 games marked off his 2011-12 checklist, he is halfway there to matching his career high.

More critically, though, Ference is evoking some of the same brand of aptitude that gave him a startling 4-6-10 scoring log in 25 playoff games last spring, including the clincher in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals.

Lately, he has had company in this department of surprise with stay-at-home rearguard Adam McQuaid, the only Bruin to add to his point total in Thursday’s 2-1 shootout victory.

In two of their last three games, as part of the extension of their month-long winning streak, the Bruins have seen all of their reliable forwards in fetters. In both Monday night’s visit to Montreal and last Thursday’s confrontation with Columbus, the top six was held pointless. Yet, on each night in question, Boston subsisted on a single regulation goal well enough to collect two points, first by way of the shootout triumph and then by virtue of Tim Thomas’ second straight shutout.

But a goalie’s valiance can never be rewarded unless someone gets the better of his counterpart. And direct gratitude for Monday’s upshot is owed to Ference just as it is to McQuaid for last Thursday’s escapade.

When the Bruins were struggling to snap out of the lethargy they had somehow failed to ward off, McQuaid settled the puck along the walls of his point perch and took advantage of a screen to beat Columbus stopper Curtis Sanford. That proved to be the equalizer after an uneventful finish to the remaining 35 minutes and 36 seconds of regulation, and Boston had the fortune of prevailing in one-on-ones.

Monday’s toil was a vastly different breed, but it ultimately required a similar painstaking search for seams. With Montreal’s Carey Price waging a chin-to-chin duel with Thomas, the Bruins ultimately found the back of the net on a delayed penalty.

Amidst that impending call, Ference ventured relatively deep into the face-off circle, absorbed a lateral pass from Rich Peverley and similarly penetrated a screen to burn Price.

That’s one way to answer the question as to how the Bruins would fare when those sugar rushes from the first half of the month inevitably discontinued. Ference and McQuaid’s fruitful willingness to try their luck on the opposing cage have played a direct role in elevating Boston into a virtual tie for first place in the Northeast Division.

If there had been a little more of this in the previous month, the Bruins could have been entering their Wednesday night visit to Buffalo vying to protect a divisional lead rather than to usurp it.

In their 10-game October slate, which featured four one-goal losses plus a pair of two-goal drawbacks inflated by empty netters, the defense combined for a single goal and 17 points. Six of those points, included Zdeno Chara’s goal and Ference’s playmaker hat trick, all came in a 6-2 annihilation of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Conversely, through the first nine games and nine wins of November, the Boston blue line has a collective 6-19-25 scoring log.

Bergeron, Krejci and their respective sets of wings will need to reload at some point. But at least someone has been literally and figuratively behind them to ensure no one is punished for their temporary cold spells.