Nothing Bruin after Cooke
Penguins 3 at Bruins 1
The Boston Bruins wasted no time avenging their fallen teammate, but once that was done they seemed to have little energy left for a playoff race they are in danger of losing.
Marc-Andre Fleury made 17 saves for Pittsburgh’s first shutout of the season and the Penguins won 3-0 as the Bruins got little spark from their retaliation against Matt Cooke less than two minutes into the game Thursday night.
Shawn Thornton squared off with Cooke five seconds after the Penguin came on for his first shift. The anticipation of a fight had built since March 7, when Bruins centre Marc Savard was sidelined indefinitely after Cooke’s blindside hit caused a Grade 2 concussion in Pittsburgh.
“We expected it to be intense and emotional but we were prepared to play hockey,” Sidney Crosby said.
The Penguins scored once in each period — goals by Tyler Kennedy, Alex Ponikarovsky and Michael Rupp.
Boston coach Claude Julien said four or five of his players had the flu and had little energy but stressed that it wasn’t an excuse for the poor performance.
“We certainly defended our teammate (Savard) well,” Julien said, “but the other part of the game wasn’t there.”
Not even captain Zdeno Chara’s decision to fight Rupp at 11:43 of the second period could fire up his teammates, who are fighting for a playoff berth. They hold the eighth and final Eastern Conference spot with 74 points, three more than the Atlanta Thrashers and New York Rangers.
“At that point, we had nothing,” Chara said. “I really felt that was the right moment to bring some energy back, some emotion. We could use a little break so I just picked the time to do it.”
It didn’t work as the Bruins generated few chances before Ponikarovsky scored in the waning moments of the period.
“My teammates did great,” Fleury said. “They kept everybody on the outside and didn’t give them much. If there was a rebound, they were there to take it away.”
During the third period, fans who had urged the Bruins to keep going after Cooke began booing the home team. Cooke had not been penalized or suspended for knocking Savard to the ice as the Boston centre followed through on a shot.
“There was an anxiety and emotion going into this game that you can’t deny,” Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said.
Cooke came on the ice just 1:53 into the game to loud boos.
“I think that was Shawn’s notice that I was on the ice,” Cooke said.
They brushed against each other in the faceoff circle to the left of the Penguins net, dropped their gloves and, in a brief exchange, traded punches before Cooke’s helmet fell off and he went to the ice.
“It’s my job. I know my job,” Thornton said.
“So it was addressed immediately and then it was out of the way.”
Each received a major penalty for fighting and Thornton also served a 10-minute misconduct for swinging after Cooke dropped to the ice.
After his penalty, Cooke skated back to his bench to more boos at 7:50 of the first period. Then, just 44 seconds later, Kennedy scored his 10th goal of the season when he lifted a shot from the right circle over goalie Tuukka Rask.
Senators 3 at Thrashers 6
Nik Antropov and Colby Armstrong scored two goals apiece, and the Thrashers beat the slumping Ottawa Senators.
Devils 1 at Maple Leafs 2 (SO)
Phil Kessel scored once in regulation and again in a shootout as the Maple Leafs beat New Jersey.
Sharks 2 at Canucks 3
Roberto Luongo made 32 saves as Canucks beat struggling San Jose, which lost its fourth straight game.
Capitals 3 at Hurricanes 4 (OT)
Ray Whitney scored at 4:02 of overtime as the Hurricanes beat a Washington team missing suspended captain Alex Ovechkin.
Blues 4 at Rangers 3
Paul Kariya scored his 400th NHL goal to snap a third-period tie and St. Louis took advantage of uncharacteristically shaky Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist, scoring four times on its first 14 shots.
Coyotes 4 at Panthers 3 (SO)
Radim Vrbata scored with a minute left in the third period to force overtime, then added the winner in the third round of a shootout for Phoenix’s franchise-record 44th victory of the season.
Sabres 6 at Lightning 2
Jason Pominville scored three goals and Buffalo moved within four points of New Jersey for the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference.
Flyers 3 at Stars 2
Scott Hartnell scored the tiebreaking goal in the third period, and Simon Gagne and Mike Richards had a goal and an assist each for Philadelphia.
Wild 0 at Predators 5
Pekka Rinne made 17 saves for his fifth shutout of the season, and Colin Wilson, Jason Arnott, and Patric Hornqvist each had a goal and an assist for the Predators.
Blackhawks 3 at Kings 0
Tomas Kopecky scored twice in a 3:20 span in the third period, and Antti Niemi made 17 saves for his fifth career shutout in Chicago’s victory over the Kings.
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