Last night, after leadoff shooter Blake Wheeler buried his attempt and Patrice Bergeron cranked a wrister off the post, Savard got his opportunity. In practice, the center had been working on a specific move: skating down the right side, curling into the slot, and looking either low blocker on the forehand or cutting to his backhand.
So when Savard skated in on Dwayne Roloson, he saw the Islanders goalie plant his right leg, taking away the lower part of the net. Savard knew that if he went the other way, the net would be open.
“When I saw him lock that leg on that side,’’ said Savard, “I knew I had him.’’
Savard backhanded the puck into the goal, Tuukka Rask stuffed Richard Park, and the Bruins swiped a 4-3 win before 17,113 at TD Garden. After 40 minutes of lifeless action, advancing to the shootout seemed like a far-fetched idea.
In the second period, Jon Sim, Radek Martinek, and John Tavares slipped pucks behind Rask to give the Islanders a 3-0 lead and provide the local leatherlungs enough reason to let the hometown team know their displeasure. The Bruins lost puck battles. They took too many penalties. They ran around in their zone. For the third time in four games, the Bruins had little emotional engagement.
“We were hearing a lot of boos there tonight,’’ Savard said. “It doesn’t feel good. So we went out there and got the cheers back.’’
During second intermission, Julien, who had kicked his players’ tails in practice Friday, had a simple message: “If you don’t want to play the way we should play, maybe we’ll keep getting the results that we have,’’ Julien told his players.
In the third, missing Dennis Wideman (left arm injury), the Bruins finally showed some spunk. Zdeno Chara jumped up in the play and set a screen on Roloson, allowing Savard to blast a slapper over the goalie at 11:59. One shift later, after Rask stopped a shot, Chara cleared the rebound, started the breakout, then joined the rush again, forcing Matt Moulson to take an interference penalty.
The Bruins didn’t score on the following power play, but Chara had thrown down the gauntlet to his teammates. They noticed.
