After arctic blast, Bruins face Hurricanes (Jan 06, 2018)
BOSTON -- Mother Nature was able to slow the Bruins down Thursday night, forcing Boston to postpone its game with the Florida Panthers.
Saturday night, the Carolina Hurricanes, who have also been playing excellent hockey, will also try to stall the Bruins when they visit TD Garden.
While the Bruins have been as hot as just about anyone in the NHL, the Hurricanes have put together a pretty good run of their own.
The 'Canes are coming off a 4-0 win at Pittsburgh, with Cam Ward making 21 saves and Sebastian Aho scoring twice, are 8-2-1 in their last 11.
"It was a big game," Ward said after the game. "Playing a divisional opponent and a team that's chasing us for a playoff spot, the guys were ready to compete."
Starting play Friday night, the Hurricanes (19-13-8) were in fifth place in the Metropolitan Division, only five points out of second.
"Our division is a bit of a dog fight," said coach Bill Peters. "We have enough maturity in the room with the veteran leadership and the addition of some of the guys we brought in this summer to recognize the importance of certain games."
Tuukka Rask whose goaltending, which has been reminiscent of his Vezina Trophy season (2013-14), has helped the Bruins through a torrid stretch where they have rebounded from a 6-7-4 start by going 16-3-2 in their last 21 games.
Rask, 11-0-1 with a 1.20 goals-against average and .956 save percentage in his last 12 starts, would have sat this game with Anton Khudobin set to start in Pittsburgh Sunday night. But the postponement had coach Bruce Cassidy up in the air about who will start which game this weekend.
"This threw a bit of a wrench," Cassidy said Friday. "They're gonna split ... it's not automatically Tuukka (Saturday) and Dobey Sunday -- I think originally we had it the other way."
Having it the other way would have given Rask an extra day off after playing Thursday and then not again until Sunday.
Cassidy said he had to talk to goaltending coach Bob Essensa before making the call, but it was hard to imagine Rask getting pushed back to Sunday.
He is 7-3-3 with a 1.89 GAA and .939 save percentage lifetime against Carolina. But Khudobin, who played two years with the Canes after leaving Boston his first time around, is 3-0-1 against Carolina in his career.
Ward has seen plenty of the Bruins over his long career, going 16-15-4 with a 2.56 GAA and .920 save percentage against Boston.
He just pitched his first shutout in 32 career starts against the Penguins.
"It's always great to get a shutout," he said. "It was a complete team effort. I thought our PK was really strong again. They have one of the top power plays in the league, and I don't think I even faced a shot. Kudos to the guys stepping in and making some big blocks at big times in the game."
The Bruins have allowed only nine goals in winning seven of their last eight games, yielding one or zero goals in all but one of those victories. The only game they lost in that span was a 4-3 shootout decision in Washington.
This is the first of three games between these two teams the rest of the way. The Hurricanes have gone 2-1 in each of the last two season series, winning twice at home and losing in Boston last season.
