“We had a number of chances like that,’’ said Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara. “It didn’t go in. That’s always tough when you don’t get that bounce.’’
The Bruins, who dropped a 4-2 decision to Winnipeg Friday night, have lost two straight. They haven’t lost three straight since late October, after which they rolled 10 wins in a row.
The down-and-out Wild snapped a seven-game losing streak. Their goaltender was perfect. They scored two opportunistic goals off the rush. They didn’t give the Bruins many second sniffs. Once more, the Bruins were out-Bruined by a non-playoff opponent.
The Bruins have shot blanks in four of their last nine games.
“We’re getting frustrated because we’re not scoring,’’ said coach Claude Julien. “We’re getting a lot of shots every night. I think we can still be better as far as getting to the front of the net and finishing around those areas. We had a breakaway. We’re getting chances. Right now, we’re not burying them. I think we’re squeezing our sticks a little bit because of what we’re going through. You’ve just got to stick with it here and fight your way out of it. Simple as that.’’
The Wild scored both goals with speed through the neutral zone. Before their first strike, the Wild won four straight puck battles along the wall to initiate their breakout. With the last pass, Dany Heatley tapped the puck to in-stride Chad Rau, who hurtled over the offensive blue line. Chara was backtracking, but he couldn’t get in position to fend off Rau’s attack.
As Marco Scandella jumped up to join the rush, Rau, speeding down the left wing, looked to pass to his teammate. Instead, Rau fired an off-wing wrister low blocker on Tim Thomas to beat the Boston netminder at 10:15 of the second. It was Rau’s second career goal. He was recalled from Houston, Minnesota’s AHL affiliate, yesterday morning.
“He was looking at [Scandella] and he wasn’t even looking where he was shooting,’’ Chara said of Rau. “He made a really nice shot - short side off the post.’’
