With the World Series moving to Los Angeles for game 3 and the teams on a day off for travel, the Boston Bruins and Boston Celtics took over the Boston sports scene Thursday night.
At TD Garden in Boston, the Bruins won their second straight game behind two goals from Zdeno Chara, and a great performance by Jaroslav Halak in net to pick up a 3-0 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers.
After a scoreless first period, Chara scored 13 minutes into the second that proved to be the game winner. Jake Debrusk added a powerplay goal later in the second, and Chara picked up his third goal of the season with an empty netter late in the third for the 6-2-2 Bruins. Halak stopped all 26 Flyers shot to garner the shutout win. Brian Elliott stopped 22 of 24 shots in the Flyers net, as Philadelphia drops to 4-6-0.
Boston will host Montreal Saturday night at TD Garden.
At Oklahoma City, the Boston Celtics rallied from a 16 point halftime deficit and shocked the Thunder 101-95 to keep OKC winless so far in the early season.
Boston (3-2) shot just 31 percent and missed all 12 three point attempts they tried in the first half, trailing 50-34 at the break. The Celtics were able to turn the game around by outscoring the Thunder 40-23 in the third quarter to take the lead. OKC (0-4) looked as if they had taken control again however, when Paul George hit a pair of three throws to increase the Thunder lead to 94-85 lead with 4:22 to play. But the Celtics finished the game on a 16-1 run, that included a three pointer by Marcus Morris with 28.7 seconds left to put the visitors up for good. Boston ended up 38% from the floor in the game, and hit 11-20 from three point range in the second half after hitting none in the first 24 minutes.
The Celtics Jayson Tatum was the game high scorer with 24 points and six rebounds. Morris finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds. Al Horford had 19 points and nine rebounds, while Kyrie Irving added 15 points, five rebounds, and five assists. George led OKC with 22 points and eight rebounds. Russell Westbrook had 13 points, 15 rebounds, and eight assists.
Boston travels to Detroit to battle the Pistons on Saturday at 7 pm.
