Bruins top Devils 2-1 on Marchand's shootout goal

[January 30, 2013]  BOSTON (AP) -- Brad Marchand scored the decisive shootout goal after teammate Nathan Horton forced overtime late in the third period and the Boston Bruins rallied for a 2-1 win over the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday night.

Boston's Tyler Seguin and New Jersey's Ilya Kovalchuk scored on their teams' first shot during the shootout. Then both teams failed on their next four attempts.

But Marchand put the puck between goalie Johan Hedberg's pads and the Bruins won when Marek Zidlicky's shot hit Tuukka Rask's left pad.

David Clarkson had put New Jersey ahead with his fourth goal of the season on a power play at 8:30 of the second period. Horton tied the game with his third goal with 4:05 left in regulation.

The Bruins are 5-0-1 and lead the Eastern Conference with 11 points. That matches their best start since 1970-71, the last time they earned points in each of their first six games.

The Devils remained unbeaten in regulation but fell to 3-0-2.

The victory was Boston's second in two nights in which it took the lead late in the game. In Monday night's 5-3 win over the Carolina Hurricanes, David Krejci scored the tiebreaking goal on a pass from rookie defenseman Dougie Hamilton with 1:50 left. Seguin added an empty-net goal with eight seconds remaining.

The Devils were coming off a 4-3 overtime loss to Montreal in which they erased a 3-1 Canadiens lead in the third period.

Horton's scoring play started when Krejci brought the puck out of his own zone and passed it to Milan Lucic, who carried it over the left side of the Devils' blue line.

Lucic passed it to Krejci in the middle and he immediately passed it to Horton, who shot a 20-footer from the right past Hedberg, playing for the first time this season after Martin Brodeur started the Devils' other four games.

Rask returned for the Bruins after sitting out Monday night's win, the first game he missed this season.

Clarkson's goal came on a 50-footer from the left after he skated with the puck from the middle of the blue line. Travis Zajac crossed in front of Rask, screening the shot that went in the upper right corner of the net. That made the Bruins the last team to allow a power-play goal this season after 23 successful penalty kills.

Clarkson had another scoring bid early in the third period when he fired the puck from the left circle. But Rask gloved it after stopping it with his chest while Krejci was in the penalty box for interfering with Hedberg.

Notes: Bruins LW Chris Bourque, son of retired Boston star Ray Bourque, turned 27 Tuesday. ... Kovalchuk has 41 points in 41 games against the Bruins after going scoreless.

[Associated Press; By HOWARD ULMAN]

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