Wild Beat Bruins, Stay Unbeaten In Boston
BOSTON (AP) - Cal Clutterbuck scored the go-ahead goal on a giveaway from Marc Savard in the Bruins zone, and the Minnesota Wild held on to beat Boston 3-1 on Thursday night.
The Wild have never lost in Boston, and they are 9-2 overall against the Original Six franchise since joining the NHL in 2000.
Jose Theodore stopped 35 shots, and Martin Havlat also had a fluky goal for the Wild, converting four seconds into a power play when Shawn Thornton was sent off on a misguided hooking call.
Replays showed that Wild defenseman Brent Burns merely slipped and fell.
Clutterbuck also assisted on Mikko Koivu's empty-netter with 43 seconds left.
Tuukka Rask made 31 saves for the Bruins, who were 0 for 4 with a man advantage and have never scored a power-play goal against Minnesota.
Steven Kampfer scored for Boston, which returned from a five-game road trip in which it earned eight of 10 points. The Wild took the lead in the second period when Thornton was called for putting his stick blade in Burns' gut, even though he had removed it before Burns went down.
Thornton barely had taken his seat in the penalty box when, on the ensuing faceoff, Havlat came up with the puck, stickhandled into the slot and put a backhand past Rask to make it 1-0.
Boston tied it later in the period when Patrice Bergeron stole the puck from Burns in the Wild zone.
Theodore made the save with his left knee, but left the rebound in front, where Kampfer got it and chipped it under the crossbar.
The Wild went up for good 2:25 into the third period when Savard's pass in the Boston zone was intercepted by Clutterbuck, who wristed in a shot to make it 2-1.
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