Bruins end skid, beat Flyers 3-2 in shootout

By Jesse Connolly

Final: Boston 3, Philadelphia 2 (SO)

Recap: After falling behind umpteen times in a row, Chris Kelly staked the B's to a 1-0 advantage. With less than three minutes remaining in the opening frame, Tyler Seguin made it a two-goal edge when he buied a feed from Patrice Bergeron.

Philadelphia cut the lead in half in the second when Matt Read tipped a shot by Danny Briere past Tim Thomas to make it 2-1. With time winding down in the third, Jak Voracek repeated that feat, deflecting a shot by Braydon Coburn to make it 2-2.

After a scoreless overtime, the first five shooters tallied before Thomas stoned Briere's attempt to seal the win. 

Records: Boston 41-27-3, 85 points; Philadelphia 41-22-8, 90 points

Key Play of the Game: Considering this went Boston's ways, we'll tip our cap to Seguin. No. 19's tally in the shootout was just filthy, as he roofed one over Bryzgalov right to the tip-top of the net.

Connolly's Commendations: Shy of two timely tips, Thomas was absolutely on his game from start to finish. The B's netminder had been shelled of late, so to limit a dangerous Flyers team to two goals should hopefully be a nice building block.

Chris Kelly stepped it up today for the Black and Gold, tallying in the first period and finishing the night with 10 faceoff wins on 17 draws. 

Patrice Bergeron, named first star of the tilt, was also huge this evening. The reliable pivot ended a mini-slump, set up Seguin's strike and scored the game-winner in the shootout.

Connolly's Critiques: Given that the Bruins ended their four-game losing streak, we'll cut everyone some slack and lay off the nitpicking.

Notes: With the win, Boston jumped from seventh to second in the Eastern Conference standings. 

Final Thoughts: Given that Bryzgalov had four shutouts in his last six games and that the Flyers had won 8-of-10, only a fool would've placed money on the Bruins winning today's tilt. But sure enough, it won't take until Monday against the Leafs for the B's to turn things around -- no matter how temporary the fix may be.

Next: As mentioned above, the Leafs will visit the Garden on Monday night.