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Boston Bruins Blow Early Lead In 7-4 Loss To San Jose Sharks

By Catherine Silverman

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Boston Bruins cannot hold on to early 2-0 lead as the San Jose Sharks outshoot and outscore

It takes a special combination of defiance, incompetence, and lack of drive to gain a 2-0 lead three minutes into a hockey game… and ultimately lose it 7-4.

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This is precisely what the Boston Bruins did on Thursday night, though; after establishing dominance through the first period of the game, they took a drastic drop-off in shots on goal and even in defensive play to permit San Jose seven goals against in only forty minutes of regulation play.

The Sharks were no better, though; Boston notched the first goal of the game just :29 seconds into the first period, and followed it with a goal by fourth line center Gregory Campbell at the 2:35 marker for insurance. This would be the first of two scoring sprees San Jose would allow Boston to go on — although the Sharks came out the clear score-based winner in this contest, the defensive play by both teams was all but absent.

The second period was a mess of poor shots by the Sharks and lack of shots by the Bruins, with San Jose notching four goals on a considerable 24 shots and Boston going nearly a full twelve minutes without a single shot against Antti Niemi. After allowing both of Tommy Wingels goals and the first of Tyler Kennedy’s, though, the defending President’s Cup champions managed to push the score to 4-3 with two goals on two shots — Niemi failed to stop chances by Reilly Smith (who was the only Boston player with two goals on the game) and Torey Krug, giving up San Jose’s hard-earned lead.

Boston wouldn’t be back on top for long, though… after Joe Pavelski picked up his first of two goals late in the second period to tie up the game, the Bruins were held scoreless until the end. San Jose would record three more goals in the final period (on only ten shots) to widen the margin of victory and earn Boston their third California loss this week alone.

Overall, the Bruins got outshot 44-24 — having four goals against on twenty-four shots says nothing good about Niemi — which resulted in San Jose’s eventual victory. Neither team played well enough to challenge even the most middle of the pack teams in the league, though… with play like this, the post-season might be missing more than a few notable names this spring.

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