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 Julien recorded his 387th regular-season victory as the coach of the
Bruins on Thursday in a 4-2 victory over the Western
Conference-leading Chicago Blackhawks at TD Garden. That ties him
with the legendary Art Ross for most all-time by a Boston coach.
"It really is humbling because (Ross) ... he's an icon, he's a
legend," Julien said. "I don't have a trophy named after me. ...
There's a big difference between Art Ross and myself, and the fact
that I've avoided being fired for the last nine years helps get that
many wins here. So, I just feel fortunate and most of all obviously
humbled by that achievement."
Brad Marchand scored his 33rd goal of the season and was one of four
Bruins with multiple points in the game, leading the team to its
first consecutive home victories since Dec. 18 and 20. Patrice
Bergeron had a goal and an assist, while the newly acquired Lee
Stempniak had two assists, as did Torey Krug.
Chicago, coming off a dominating 5-2 victory over Detroit the night
before, struggled out of the gate, and save for a short stretch in
the third period never looked like the dominating team that has made
the Western Conference a race for second place.
"I think that we've got a real tough stretch -- at least 10 games
that we've got here, all playoff teams, all teams that are
dangerous," Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "Good teams as
well, especially in this building on a back-to-back night. We really
needed to keep ourselves in the game early and we didn't."
Ryan Spooner's power-play goal at the 2:31 mark of the second period
proved to be the winner.
Boston (36-23-6) kept pace in the Atlantic Division, remaining two
points behind the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers. Chicago
(40-21-5) maintained a two-point lead in the Central.
Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask made 25 saves, and Chicago netminder
Scott Darling stopped 21 shots.
The Bruins scored at the start and end of the first period,
sandwiching a Blackhawks goal to take a 2-1 lead.
Bergeron put the Bruins on the board 1:18 into the game, recovering
behind the goal and turning to whip a shot past Chicago's Niklas
Hjalmarsson for his 25th of the season. Marchand and Stempniak each
assisted on the goal, starting a very good night for the line of two
longtime Bruin mainstays and Stempniak, who drew plaudits from his
new coach.
"He's a real smart player and I think he's a real smart player on
both sides of the puck -- confident offensively, defensively he's
really given us good stability there," Julien said. "I think as he
gets to know (Marchand) and (Bergeron) a little more you're going to
see some output there from that line."
The Blackhawks returned fire after Bruins rookie Noel Acciari went
to the penalty box for hooking with 6:21 to go in the first period.
Jonathan Toews needed only 35 seconds of the ensuing power play to
tie it, pouncing on a rebound of Christian Ehrhoff's initial shot
from the point and Andrew Ladd's follow-up attempt.
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Marchand regained the lead for the Bruins with 22 seconds to go in
the first period, firing a sizzling wrister from the left wing
circle to beat Darling high glove side.
The Bruins jumped all over the Blackhawks for most of the second
period, taking advantage of a Chicago roster that had beaten another
Atlantic Division team on the road less than 24 hours earlier in
Detroit.
"They were making it hard to play against and sometimes when you
don't match their speed and match their work ethic, it's hard to
play through that traffic, and so I think that's probably the reason
why we couldn't get to the net," Chicago captain Jonathan Toews
said. "We couldn't get the second chances and we couldn't sustain
our puck possession."
After Ladd was called for high sticking 2:25 into the period, Ryan
Spooner needed only six seconds to cash in on the power play and
make it 3-1.
Acciari was called for hooking again with 6:42 to go, but just as
his penalty expired, David Krejci took the puck away in the
Blackhawks' zone, hitting John-Michael Liles cross-ice. The Bruins'
trade-deadline acquisition fluttered a pass to Loui Eriksson in the
slot and the winger poked it home for his 24th of the season and a
4-1 Boston lead.
The Blackhawks got one back with 50 seconds left on Tomas
Fleischmann's first goal with his new team, making it 4-2 before the
second intermission.
NOTES: C Patrice Bergeron tied Terry O'Reilly for eighth place on
Boston's all-time points scoring list with 606, and his goal gave
him sole possession of 10th place on the club's all-time goals list.
... RW Lee Stempniak assisted on both Boston first-period goals for
his first and second points as a Bruin since being acquired from New
Jersey at the trade deadline. ... D Christian Ehrhoff, also a
deadline acquisition, picked up his first assist for the Blackhawks
on C Jonathan Toews' first-period goal. ... RW Dale Weise made his
Blackhawks debut after being acquired from Montreal along with RW
Tomas Fleischmann, who debuted in Chicago's 3-2 victory over
Washington on Sunday. Weise slotted in on the fourth line alongside
LW Brandon Mashinter and C Dennis Rasmussen, replacing RW Richard
Panik. ... Chicago completed its 12th set of back-to-back games this
year. The Blackhawks are 6-5-1 in second games of the back-to-backs.
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