The kid is alright.
Jeremy Swayman secured his second shutout of the season in the Boston Bruins’ 2-0 win over the Ottawa Senators on Saturday afternoon.
The former Maine Black Bear stopped all 30 shots he faced to guide the Bruins to its first victory since the All-Star break. Swayman picked up his first win in net since Jan. 2 in the outing against Ottawa, which came four days after a shaky start against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
“Have a quick memory and move on to the next game is something I’ve been focusing on,” Swayman said afterward. “I’ve had a lot of great people helping me with that.”
Trent Frederic and Curtis Lazar netted Boston’s goals in the first period, the former coming 45 seconds into the contest. Lazar notched his first goal in 12 games following his sixth marker of the season at 13:26 of the opening stanza.
The Senators fought back in the final two periods with 22 combined shots, but Swayman kept them all out of the net. Thomas Chabot led all Ottawa skaters with six shots.
Here’s what we learned following Saturday’s bounce-back win.
The fourth line provided the offensive spark
Without Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand, the Bruins needed its offensive depth to show up in a winnable matchup, and it certainly did against the Senators.
Lazar’s insurance strike late in the first capped off a busy period for the visitors as they finished the frame with 22 shots on Ottawa goalie Matt Murray.
It appeared Anton Blidh added to the fourth line’s scoring success in the third period. But the officials overturned the original goal call as they deemed that Lazar interfered with Murray before Blidh slid the puck across the goal line. The fourth line of Lazar, Blidh and Tomas Nosek tallied two points and five shots on goal.
“I liked the other goal they didn’t call back,” Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. “That extended the lead and it’s a little bit how you have to attack Ottawa sometimes through their neutral zone, double up on one side and get a puck to the net and attack the net.
“I thought they did a lot of things well,” Cassidy added. “They’re typically a line that has to match up with top lines and starting in their own end a lot. Tonight we just kind of rolled with it. We got a busy week in front of us here. On the road, you don’t always get your matchups so good for them.”
Three is Boston’s magic number
Boston’s victory over the Senators continued an encouraging trend of halting losing streaks after just a couple of games.
The Bruins have lost two in a row five times this season, but have never let it get to a third. Coming off a particularly ugly loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday, Boston came out flying on Saturday to ensure the same result wouldn’t transpire for a third straight time.
“Business-like,” Lazar said on the team’s mindset heading into the game. “I think it started yesterday in practice as well. We battled and competed and skated and that carried over into today. You look at our first shift, we kind of set the tone and that built the game for everyone. I thought we did a good job supporting the puck on the ice, and it was a good, solid effort for us.”
With another win over its Atlantic Division foes Saturday afternoon, Boston also improved to 12-1 in its last 13 games with Ottawa.
Another Matinee ‘W’
The Bruins have played in seven matinee games so far this season and pushed their record to 6-1 after the shutout against the Senators.
Boston’s 5-2 loss to the New York Rangers on Black Friday counts as its only defeat in a matinee this season. The wins came against the San Jose Sharks, New Jersey Devils, Buffalo Sabres, Detroit Red Wings and Nashville Predators, to go along with Ottawa.
The Bruins have outscored their opponents 24-12 in those six afternoon victories.
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