Sharks shred Bruins in battle of NHL’s best

After spotting the Boston Bruins a 2-1 lead, the San Jose Sharks erupted for four goals in the third period to rout their hosts 5-2 at the TDBankNorth Garden on Tuesday night.  The matchup is a potential Stanley Cup Finals preview, with the Bruins and Sharks holding sizable leads in their respective conferences.  The loss was only the 9th of the season for Boston and only their 4th setback on home ice.

Milan Lucic’s 12th and 13th goals of the year accounted for all of Boston’s scoring and came in the first period, sandwiching a power play goal by the Sharks’ Rob Blake.  This sent the Bruins to the locker room up 2-1, and after a scoreless second period it appeared that Boston was on their way to another “grind ‘em out” type victory as they held the Sharks to only 19 shots in the first two frames.

The tide turned quickly in the third, as Patrick Marleau scored just over three minutes in to tie the game.  From that point on it was all Sharks as they riddled Bruins netminder Tim Thomas with shots--Milan Michalek scored his 15th of the season at the 7:28 mark followed by former Bruin Joe Thornton’s ‘insurance goal’ at the 9:48 mark.  Mike Grier added a final goal into an empty net after the Bruins pulled Thomas for an extra attacker in the last minute of the game.

After the game, the former Boston captain Thorton praised his former team:

"They're a darn good team, probably one of the best we've played this year. If the power play was on a little bit more it would have been a different game. They're a good team."

Thornton then continued to give credit to his own team:

"We play fast, we play big. They came out really strong and we didn't have too many answers. I think the second half of the game, the ice kind of tilted."

Sharks’ coach Todd McLellan concluded:

"It's pretty rewarding to come back in a building like this and get a game like that in the third period.”

 The Boston loss represented the team’s first in regulation this season when they’ve held a lead after 40 minutes.   The Bruins will try to stop a two game winless streak on the road, heading to New Jersey, Nashville and Carolina.  San Jose continues their road trip on Wednesday in Pittsburgh, followed by stops in Buffalo and New Jersey.