Bruins Beat Blackhawks 4-2
BOSTON -- Brad Marchand scored his 33rd goal of the season, and the Boston Bruins won consecutive games at home for the first time in nearly three months, beating the Chicago Blackhawks 4-2 Thursday night at TD Garden.
Boston's Claude Julien tied Art Ross for the franchise record in coaching wins with his 387th victory.
Marchand was one of four Bruins with multi-point nights, joined by new acquisition Lee Stempniak (two assists) as well as Patrice Bergeron (goal, assist) and Torey Krug (two assists).
Ryan Spooner's power-play goal at the 2:31 mark of the second period proved to be the winner.
Boston (36-23-6) entered into a tie, at least briefly, with the Tampa Bay Lightning for second place in the Atlantic Division. Chicago (40-21-5) maintained a two-point lead in the Central.
Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask made 25 saves, and Chicago netminder Scott Darling stopped 21 shots.
The Bruins scored at the start and end of the first period, sandwiching a Blackhawks goal to take a 2-1 lead.
Bergeron put the Bruins on the board just 1:18 into the game, recovering behind the goal and turning to whip a shot past Chicago's Niklas Hjalmarsson for his 25th goal of the season.
The Blackhawks returned fire after Bruins rookie Noel Acciari went to the penalty box for hooking with 6:21 to go in the first period. Jonathan Toews needed only 35 seconds of the ensuing power play to tie it, pouncing on a rebound of Christian Ehrhoff's initial shot from the point and Andrew Ladd's follow-up attempt.
Marchand regained the lead for the Bruins with 22 seconds to go in the first period, firing a sizzling wrister from the left wing circle to beat Darling high glove side.
The Bruins jumped all over the Blackhawks for most of the second period, taking advantage of a Chicago roster that had beaten another Atlantic Division team on the road less than 24 hours earlier in Detroit.
After Ladd was called for high sticking 2:25 into the period, Ryan Spooner needed just six seconds to cash in on the power play and make it 3-1.
Acciari was called for hooking again with 6:42 to go, but just as his penalty expired, David Krejci took the puck away in the Blackhawks' zone, hitting John-Michael Liles cross-ice. The Bruins' trade-deadline acquisition fluttered a pass to Loui Eriksson in the slot and the winger poked it home for a 4-1 Boston lead.
The Blackhawks got one back with 50 seconds left on Tomas Fleischmann's first goal with his new team, making it 4-2 before the second intermission.
NOTES: RW Lee Stempniak assisted on both of Boston's first-period goals for his first and second points as a Bruin since being acquired from New Jersey at the trade deadline. ... D Christian Ehrhoff, also a deadline acquisition, picked up his first assist for the Blackhawks on C Jonathan Toews's first-period goal. ... RW Dale Weise made his Blackhawks debut after being acquired from Montreal along with RW Tomas Fleischmann, who debuted in Chicago's 3-2 win over Washington on Sunday. Weise slotted in on the fourth line alongside LW Brandon Mashinter and C Dennis Rasmussen, replacing RW Richard Panik. ... Chicago completed its 12th set of back-to-back games this year. The Blackhawks are 6-5-1 in second games of the back-to-backs.