Lucic nets two as Bruins clinch top seed in East

So...the Boston Bruins are peaking too early?  Try telling that to the Philadelphia Flyers.

Sure, since shutting out the Chicago Blackhawks last weekend, the Bruins have given up 12 goals in four games - including a couple of goals in the waning seconds of periods - and not looking as consistent as they did during their 16 game point streak, but there's no need to go looking for a reason for it - because there's not one.

photo courtesy Brian Babineau/NHLI Getty Inages

At least, there's not something that needs to be corrected - just a stretch of games against four teams in desperation mode and trying to secure playoff spots combined with Boston coach Claude Julien mixing up his defensive pairings to find the best post-season combinations while giving his greybeards some time off to rest their weary bones.

“We’re in a position to utilize our whole bench,” Julien told reporters, waving off concerns that the team had lost the edge that they displayed during the month of March. “I can guarantee you there are situations there late in the period that if we’re in the playoffs, it won’t be the same thing. Let’s not read too much into that stuff here."

The latest chance for Julien to prepare his team for the post-season came Saturday afternoon at TD Garden, where the hometown faithful were treated to more of the same - the Philadelphia Flyers taking advantage of their superior speed and violent intent early, the Bruins taking the bullies' best shot, then cranking their play into overdrive...

...Milan Lucic scoring twice and Johnny Boychuck ripping the long-range game winner with six minutes and change remaining in regulation as the Bruins flexed their muscles and pulled away from the Flyers in the third period for a 5-2 victory - a win that clinched the top seed in the Eastern Conference, ensuring home ice advantage for Boston throughout the Conference playoffs.

David Krejci also potted a goal, Chris Kelly added an empty net dagger and Loui Eriksson dropped four dimes for the second time in his career for the Bruins, who now have engineered a 23-3-4 record since a momentum-shifting overtime loss to the Blackhawks clear back in mid-January, overtaking the Pittsburgh Penguins and St. Louis Blues for best record in the league in the process.

Now the Bruins set their sights on the President's Cup, awarded to the team that has the best record in the National Hockey League - and with it, home ice advantage throughout the Stanley Cup Playoffs.  And whether or not that is something that the Bruins should be working toward, it may be something that just can't be helped.

“The biggest thing to focus on is not to get complacent, keep on pushing." newly-crowned Bruins' Seventh Man of the Year Reilly Smith offered. "Most of the teams we’re playing are desperate for playoff spots, so just to keep that mind-set and make sure you’re pushing every night and stick to the things that made us successful the last month or so.”

And what has made them successful is their machine like efficiency and their now all-too-familiar game plan of taking their opponent's best shot, all the while wearing them down with their heavy physicality and then stepping on their throats and burying them in the final frame.

That's a script that has served them well all season, and Saturday afternoon against their nemesis from Philadelphia was no exception - in fact, it was a perfect example.

With the score tied at two coming out of the room for the third period, the Bruins set the tone by using Flyers' goalie Ray Emery for target practice, putting 22 of their 42 total shots on goal in the frame - at the same time wearing out the bullies' defense by punishing them against the boards...

...scoring three times in the final six minutes while starting goalie Tuukka Rask turned away nine of his 24 saves in picking up his 35th win of the season.

Krejci ended a personal 17-game goal drought to open the scoring, tracking down a puck knocked loose from a scrum in front of the net and snapping it in for a 1-0 lead late in the opening frame that the Bruins took into the room at the first intermission.

The Flyers tied it up on a Wayne Simmonds point blank backhanded tip in on the man advantage four and a half minutes into the second period, but the Bruins took the lead right back 19 seconds later when Lucic called for and received a pass in the high slot right in his wheelhouse - the one-timer finding dirty ice for a 2-1 lead...

...but it took all of a minute and a half for the Flyers to knot the score again, a rare Jay Rosehill offering that the checking-line left winger somehow snapped past Rask from a narrow angle, the puck flying over the big Finn's blocker from across the crease - but that's as close as the Flyers would come for the rest of the match.

"We've got to come out and initiate the third period with the game on the line, a tied game here," Flyers coach Craig Berube lamented to NHL.com. "I thought that we competed hard up to then and were in good shape. We have to go out and initiate the third period. We can't sit back and can't let teams match you, and I thought that's what we did."

The Bruins commenced the beatings from the opening puck drop of the final frame, taking control of the pace until, inevitably, the Flyers' defense tired and the Bruins' shots started finding the mark.

In rapid succession, Boychuk let one of his rockets off the chain, taking a one-timer directly off a Patrice Bergeron attacking zone faceoff win - his drive from the point never seen by a shielded Emery - then Lucic potted his second of the game just 30 seconds later, Torey Krug leading a three-on-two into the Flyers' zone and leaving the puck in the slot for the trailing Lucic...

...Kelly logging the empty net goal to provide the final score and an end to the Bruins' first two-game winless streak and avoided thier first three-game streak of the season.

What's left to do for the Bruins?

"Well, it's something, I guess, we wanted to do, but it wasn't really our main goal." Rask said of clinching the top seed in the east. "Everyone knows what our main goal is."

And with the season the Bruins have put together to this point, not accomplishing that goal would be a bitter disappointment, if not a major upset.

Bruins win ninth straight on the road; Smith pots game winner in shootout

There are not too many rivalries in the history of sports that are as bruised and bloody as the one between the Boston Bruins and the Philadelphia Flyers, conjuring images of the mid-70's clashes when nicknames were cool...

...so when the "Big Bad Bruins" invaded the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia on Sunday afternoon, there was every chance that the "Broad Street Bullies" were going to be less-than-hospitable hosts - and they were, coming out looking to nail anything in white, black and gold that moved, delivering shot after shot on the newly crowned Atlantic Division champs.

And to have the kings down is one thing, but to put them away is quite another - and if there is anything that the other 29 teams in the National Hockey League should have learned by now, it is if you don't put the Bruins away while delivering your best shot early, chances are the Bruins are probably going to put you away late...

...and it took a bit of free hockey and both Boston's Tuukka Rask and Philadelphia's Steve Mason engaging in three-ring acrobatics between the pipes, but Riley Smith ended it as the fifth option in the shootout to give the Bruins their ninth consecutive road victory by a score of 4-3.

Trailing 2-1 coming out of the room for the second period, the Bruins took control of the pace of the game when Brad Marchand almost single-handedly disrupted and killed a Flyers power play and nearly built on his league-leading short-handed goal total, but left the scoring up to his linemates...

...the top defensive pairing of Andrej Meszaros and Zdeno Chara each potting goals and top line centerman Patrice Bergeron continued his hot scoring streak as the Bruins followed their season-long script of absorbing their opponent's best shot, but the Flyers final relentless desperation assault paid off for them as Vincent Lacavalier scored with 24.1 seconds left in regulation to send the game to overtime.

Rask was in full condor mode - by necessity, as the Flyers used him for target practice early then desperately threw everything on net late - stoning all but three of the 52 Philadelphia tries, Lacavalier driving one off off the stick of Bruins' defenseman Johnny Boychuk for the 400th of his career, then the open-net equalizer in the third for number 401 - and blue liner Kimmo Timonen logging his 4th of the season.

Mason wasn't nearly as busy as his counterpart for the Bruins, facing "only" thirty shots in regulation and overtime, but gave up shootout goals to Bergeron and Smith to take the loss.  The point earned for taking the Bruins to overtime forged a tie for second place in the Metropolitan Division with the New York Rangers, the Flyers with the advantage by having a game in hand over their bitter rivals.

Lacavalier gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead just five minutes in, Adam Hall picking the pocket of Bruins' centerman Gregory Campbell in the neutral zone and feeding Lacavalier in the high slot, Boychuk's attempt at blocking the shot causing the puck to dive on Rask, who was handcuffed by the redirection - but Meszaros got it back midway through the period to tie the score...

...Marchand's centering feed and Smith's shielding work in the crease key elements of the scoring play, though the Flyers would retake the lead with 42 seconds remaining in the period, Jakub Voracek dropping a pass to Timonen from the right wing on a 3-2 break, Timonen needing no redirection on his blistering wrister from the high slot.

The first power play opportunity of the game went to the Flyers, but Marchand was masterful in leading a penalty kill effort that nearly netted his sixth short-handed goal of the season - but the Bruins had to settle for the shift in momentum gained by the kill, then embarking on a man-advantage of their own, Chara potting his tally just eleven seconds into the power play to level the score at 2-2...

...Jarome Iginla easily finding Chara uncovered to Mason's blocker side, the gigantic blue liner using his incredible wingspan to elevate the puck on the backhand over Mason's trapper - then Bergeron gave Boston the lead on a fantastic individual effort, putting a shot on Mason from the top of the right circle and then beating Timonen to the rebound and negaotiating the trapezoid before turning and spinning to the forehand in the bottom of the left circle to beat Mason stick-side.

The Bruins dominated play from that point, making up a huge deficit in hits while keeping the Flyers out of the slot, but two errors on one play allowed Philadelphia to send the game into overtime.

With just over 30 seconds to play and Philadelphia with the extra skater after Mason was pulled from net, Loui Eriksson tried to escort the puck out of the Bruins' zone but it was poked back in by Timonen right to Boychuk who whiffed on a clearing attempt in the high slot, the puck gliding to Voracek on the left post who found Lacavalier streaking in from the opposite side to knot the score.

After a furiously paced overtime period, Bergeron and Flyers' captain Claude Giroux tallied in the shootout to send that to extra frames as well, Rask stoning Matt Read and Voracek while Mason got the best of Boston's David Krejci before Smith got Mason sprawled on his backside with a shoulder feign and easily deposited the puck on the backhand.

Hockey may be one of the few sports where statistics tell a compelling story of a game, as evidenced by Philadelphia's 20-6 hits advantage in the first period, the Flyers' seemingly looking to intimidate a Bruins' squad who come into each contest expecting to get their opponent's best shot - and though the Flyers

Philadelphia had their best shot at taking the game back from the Bruins early in the final frame, but the Bruins killed off a long-term, five-on-three man advantage and the Flyers never seriously threatened after that - though the defensive lapse in the final seconds of regulation could have spoiled what was a gritty effort by Boston.

The Bruins set the franchise record for consecutive road wins with nine, but more importantly extended their lead over the Pittsburgh Penguins for the top spot in the Eastern Conference to 11 points with seven games to play, and by three points over the St. Louis Blues in the race for the President's Cup, given to the team with the best record in the league.

Boston's remaining seven games are less-than-imposing, though all but one are against teams fighting for playoff spots or better seeding and five of the seven are on the road, but all are important games as the Bruins try for home ice advantage throughout the Stanley Cup Playoffs, a huge advantage for a team that anything less than hoisting the cup would be a huge disappointment.