First period quick hits

It took a little while, but the Boston Bruins finally found their legs after a slow opening start to the first period. Both teams exchanged power play opportunities early on but displayed little, if any, rhythm at all with the man advantage. Once again, Boston continued their dominance while playing shorthanded, killing off 34 of their last 36.

Recently, former Bruins winger Jarome Iginla has shown signs of life during Colorado’s 6-2-1 run playing at the Pepsi Center and Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask (eight saves) got a taste of the future Hall-of-Famers resurgence. Iginla was buzzing all over the ice in the opening 20, tallying two shots-on-goal. With the period nearing conclusion, the Bruins seemingly collapsed down low, leaving a net-crashing Iginla wide open on the rebound with 0.04 seconds remaining to give the Avs the 1-0 lead.

Brad Marchand returned from a two-game suspension and led all Bruins forwards with two hits, including a giant one on Avs captain Gabriel Landeskog and logged a little over five minutes of ice time. With Marchand’s return, Daniel Paille moved back to his familiar spot on the fourth line, flanking Gregory Campbell and Craig Cunningham. Once again, the Bruins fourth line continues to get better, led by Cunningham’s(1 SOG) all-around energy.

The Bruins best scoring chance came shortly after killing off Bergeron’s goaltending interference penalty midway through the first period when Reilly Smith centered a pass over to Bergeron, who had position on Avs defenseman Erik Johnson, but goaltender Semyon Varlamov (seven saves) was able to steer away the redirect opportunity.