Bruins Beat Devils, Win Northeast Title

By KC Downey in Bruins, Featured, Top Story ⋅ March 22, 2009 at 8:00pm ⋅ Post a comment

Playing against perhaps the greatest goaltender in NHL history, Martin Brodeur, the Bruins needed things to go their way, especially considering how poorly they’ve played lately. Also, the Devils were creeping up on them in the Eastern Conference race, so it was important for the B’s to get the win.

The Bruins got some luck, thanks to two deflected goals, and the win they needed Sunday afternoon, breezing by the Devils 4-1. With the win, the Bruins clinched the Northeast Division title and moved five points ahead of the Devils with nine games remaining. The Devils, meanwhile, have 10 games to go, so it’s not over yet.

Michael Ryder scored his first period goal off of a New Jersey defenseman to give the B’s the 1-0 lead. Milan Lucic scored the final goal of the game late in the second period, also off a NJ defenseman.

“We made a couple of mistakes,” said Brodeur. “We paid the price, even though they were some lucky goals on the power play they got, it was still opportunities that we gave up that usually we don’t do.”

Sandwiched in between the lucky scores, the Chuck Kobasew and Marc Savard each tallied goals themselves. Andy Greene scored the only goal for the Devils in the second period.

Tim Thomas finshed 41 saves overall, including 17 in the third period alone. Brodeur finished with 26 saves in the loss.