The Boston Bruins and Boston Celtics were both in action on Wednesday night. The Bruins were looking to continue their torrid hot start to the season in Ottawa, while the Celtics were trying to stay undefeated at home against Brooklyn.
At the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa, the Bruins rallied back in the third period with goals from Brad Marchand and Zdeno Chara to take a 2-1 win over the Senators.
The two teams battled through the first 40 minutes of action scoreless with Ottawa controlling play and outshooting Boston 24-10. The hosts got on the board first when Thomas Chabot scored 41 seconds into the third period. Chabot uses his skating skills to beat the Bruins defense and fired a wrist shot from just inside the left faceoff circle that beat Boston goalie Tuuka Rask glove side. Marchand tied it at 5:15 on a nice assist from Anders Bjork. Bjork backhanded a feed from the right wing boards to find a wide open Marchand who skated into the faceoff circle to the right of Senators goalie Anders Nilsson and took a shot that slipped into the goal five hole. Chara got the game winner 3:30 later when Joaquim Nordstrom slid a puck from the right circle to the wide open defenseman in between the circles and Chara bombed a heavy slapshot to beat Nilsson. Ottawa (11-13-1) pulled Nilsson for an extra man with just over a minute left and had some great chances but Rask closed the door with several grade A saves.
Rask ended with 33 saves in the win for Boston (17-3-5). Nilsson made 19 stops in the Ottawa loss. Both teams went 0-2 on the powerplay and neither team had a multiple point scorer. The Bruins extend their points streak to 10 games (7-0-3). The black and gold now returns home to host the New York Rangers on Friday afternoon at 1 p.m.
At TD Garden in Boston, Kemba Walker returned to the starting lineup and put up a season high 39 points to lead the Celtics to a 121-110 comeback win over the Brooklyn Nets who were without an “injured” Kyrie Irving.
Boston (13-4) started off strong in a back and forth first quarter taking a 30-23 advantage after the opening 12 minutes. Brooklyn (9-9) put together an impressive 40 point second quarter led by 16 points by Garrett Temple and 10-12 shooting from the three-point arc leading by as many as nine to take a 63-57 halftime lead. The Nets had an eight point lead early in the third before the Celtics rallied to overtake the lead they wouldn’t give back. Jaylen Brown finally gave the lead to the hosts on a tip in with 2:27 left to make it 84-83. Boston would then increase their lead to eight before Temple knocked down a last second three-pointer to cut it to five headed to the fourth quarter. The Celtics increased the lead back to 12 four minutes into the last quarter before the Nets made one more push getting within 104-101 on a 9-0 run finished off with yet another Temple three-pointer with 5:28 remaining. But Walker had the response with a three of his own, and Brad Wanamaker converted an unconventional three point play to push the lead to nine. Brooklyn never got closer than seven the rest of the way as they had their four game win streak snapped, and Boston improved to 7-0 on their home floor.
Walker shot 13-24 from the floor, 7-7 from the foul line, and knocked in 6-10 from the three-point arc while also adding six rebounds and four assists. Brown had a double double with 22 points, 10 rebounds, two assists, and three steals. Jayson Tatum had 16 points, nine rebounds, and five assists. Daniel Theis had 14 points and eight rebounds, while Wanamaker added 13 off the bench. The Celtics also shot 22-24 from the foul line in the win. Temple had 22 points in the Nets loss (6-12 three-pointers). Joe Harris added 21 points and five rebounds. Brooklyn knocked in 21-56 from the three-point line on the night, the most made threes Boston has allowed in any game so far this season. The Celtics will visit the Nets in Brooklyn on the other end of the home and home on Friday afternoon at 12 p.m.
