"We sure dug ourselves an awful hole in the first," said Ference. "In the first, I just played awful."
But in the second period, when Crosby raced into the corner and whacked Ference on the head, the defenseman did what the Bruins finally decided to do in the second half of the game.
Fight back.
Ference returned a shot to Crosby's head, and moments later, the 20-year-old center dropped his gloves, ripped off the defenseman's helmet, and squared off for the first time as an NHLer. Crosby held his own, opening a cut on Ference's forehead when he removed his helmet.
Perhaps it was coincidence, but later in the second period, the Bruins kicked off their comeback, scoring the first of four unanswered goals, on their way to wiping out a 4-0 Pittsburgh advantage and sending the game to a shootout. Forward Erik Christensen and defenseman Kris Letang beat Thomas, while former University of New Hampshire netminder Ty Conklin stuffed Phil Kessel and Marco Sturm to give Pittsburgh a 5-4 shootout victory.
But the Bruins, who've made their name on one-goal decisions and neutral-zone clogs, gained a point and provided 15,304 fans with undoubtedly the most edge-of-the-seat excitement - not many were ducking out for refreshments in the game's second half - of the 2007-08 season. The Bruins remain the only team in the NHL not to have lost consecutive games in regulation.
"It was a very, very enjoyable game and they'll talk about it for a while," said Thomas (25 saves). "But if we win that shootout, they talk about it for a long time."
For the first 30 minutes, it was a game that was headed toward the infamy category. The quick-strike Penguins blew the Bruins' doors off in the first period, taking advantage of a string of defensive-zone cough-ups - the No. 1 line of P.J. Axelsson, Marc Savard, and Glen Murray, along with Ference, had minus-3 ratings after the first period - to take a 3-0 lead.
Evgeni Malkin scored on Pittsburgh's first shot just 55 seconds into the game. Crosby deflected a shot past Thomas to make it 2-0. And Malkin netted his second at 11:53.
"We were headed toward embarrassment there for a while," said Bruins coach Claude Julien.
