In the first period, Wideman recorded an assist on P.J. Axelsson's power-play goal by making the slightest of shifts at the point. In the second period, a clever rap off the wall kick-started the breakout that led to Milan Lucic's winning goal.
Then in the third period, with the Penguins banging on the door for the tying goal, Wideman helped Manny Fernandez stop arguably the game's best player from making it a 3-3 game.
Just another night at the office.
In the first period, with the score tied at 1-1 (David Krejci scored Boston's first goal at 4:05, extending his points streak to 10 games), the Bruins went on the power play when defenseman Alex Goligoski, playing forward last night, was called for delay of game for dumping the puck into the seats. Wideman, who has replaced Patrice Bergeron as the left-point man on the No. 1 power-play unit, had the puck at the blue line and considered his options.
His best play was hitting Marc Savard down low. But the Penguins had the passing lane filled. Solution: clear it out.
With a quick look to point partner Zdeno Chara, Wideman forced the Penguins to cheat toward the captain to negate his one-timer. The fake opened up the passing lane, and Wideman snapped a diagonal pass to Savard.
"Seemed like against these guys, that lane was open," Savard said. "Up in Pittsburgh, he found it a couple times. Usually when [Marco] Sturm is out there, that's our play. I can slide it to him. Axey was in the right place tonight."
Savard dished to Axelsson, but the puck was deflected and popped into the air. No matter, as Axelsson took a backhand swing and batted the puck past goalie Dany Sabourin at 9:24 to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead.
In the second, the dangerous Evgeni Malkin skated down the right wing with some help in the middle. Malkin threw the puck into the slot area, hoping forward Maxime Talbot would get a scoring chance. But Wideman read the play and stepped into the space.
"Malkin threw it in the middle and I knew that Talbot was out there somewhere around me," Wideman said. "I didn't think I had time to see where my guys were. So I was just thinking about getting it out of the middle and getting it on the wall."
