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    All-Centennial Team

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    Stanley Cup Champs

    Double digit dominance: B's win streak hits 10 games with 4-2 win over New Jersey

    The Black and Gold train keeps on rolling.

    The Bruins winning streak has hit double digits at 10 games, as the B's beat the New Jersey Devils at the Prudential Center behind goals from Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, Jarome Iginla and Chris Kelly.

    Backup goalie Chad Johnson turned aside 22 shots to pick up his 15th win of the year.

    Playing in their fourth back-to-back in this month, the Bruins showed little in signs of exhaustion in dispatching the Devils en route to yet another win. 

    Iginla and the B's keep it rolling [via J. Cortez, AP]
    The Bruins came out firing on all cylinders, putting 15 shots on net in the first 20 minutes. They outshot the Devils 7-0 to start the game, and after a bit of pushback from the home team, the Bruins found the first goal of the night. 

    Patrice Bergeron opened up the scoring on the night, netting his 20th of the year at 14:33 of the first period. Andrej Meszaros hit Bergeron at the blueline as he entered the zone, who then handed it off to Reilly Smith. Smith played a quick tap pass back to Bergeron as he got inside the face-off circle, and even though Bergeron fanned on the backhand attempt, the puck still beat Martin Brodeur to give the Bruins the 1-0 lead.

    The Devils had a carry-over 5-on-3 powerplay heading into the second period from a Doug Hamilton charging penalty and a Greg Campbell delay of game peanlty, and they cashed in just 29 seconds into the frame. Patrick Elias bagged his 16th of the year off a blistering slapshot that beat Chad Johnson on the shortside.

    But the good vibes didn't last long at all for the Devils, as Brad Marchand put home his 22nd of the year and league-leading 5th shorthanded goal just a minute later. Marchand led the charge into the zone with Patrice Bergeron trailing behind him. With Marchand taking on the defensemen, the puck squirted free to Bergeron on the far side. Marchand broke free and one-timed the Bergeron backhanded pass to beat Brodeur.

    Jarome Iginla made it 3-1 with his 26th of the year just a minute later, beating Brodeur five-hole after receiving a stretch-pass from Torey Krug all the way back in the Bruins' zone. Krug's pass found Iginla right on the tape at the blueline, and Iginla bared down on Marty and squeaked the shot through the pads.  

    The aftermath of CK23's goal [via J. Cortez, AP]
    The lead held until 7:11 of the third period, when Chris Kelly iced the game after some more of the same beautiful third-line magic we've seen in the last month plus. 


    Kelly's 8th of the year made it 4-1, but it was Carl Soderberg's unreal, no-look backhand pass from the sideboards that gets the praise.The Bruins broke out of their zone after a face-off win, with Loui Eriksson banking the puck off the boards to Soderberg who drove towards the corner before releasing the on-point pass right to Kelly's stick. Soderberg got the cross-ice pass right to Kelly's blade for the one-timer, and it was thing of beauty.

    The Devils got one back two minutes later off the stick of Travis Zajac.  Zdeno Chara got caught pinching in the zone, leaving the space open behind him for the 3-on-1 the other way. Doug Hamilton was caught guarding the passing lane, which gave Zajac the space to rip the wrist-shot past Johnson on the far side.

    But that was as close as the game would get, as the Bruins finished off the Devils in the last remaining minutes to seal the victory.

    The Bruins now have a few days off before heading out west to play another back-to-back on Friday vs the Colorado Avalanche and the Phoenix Coyotes on Saturday. 

    • Milan Lucic threw down with Ryan Clowe in the first period and it was quite the heavyweight bout. Both Lucic and Clowe got some heavy shots in, with Lucic landing the majority of the punches to win the decision. 
    • Jarome Iginla's 26th goal of the year gave him 556 for his career, tying him with Bruins legend Johnny Bucyk for 25th on the all-time scoring list.
    • Iginla has also scored in four straight games and has 8 points (7 G, 1A) in six games 
    • The Bruins are 9-0-3 in their last 12 road games, which is their longest road point streak since the 1975-76 season when they recorded points in  14 straight games.
    • Patrice Bergeron joins Iginla, Brad Marchand, and Milan Lucic in the 20-goal club. Reilly Smith (19) and David Krejci (16) are knocking on the door to get there next. Even Zdeno Chara (16) has an outside chance of cracking the 20-goal mark.
    • Defenseman Corey Potter made his Bruins debut,  logging 15:09 time-on-ice, one shot on goal and a +1 rating. Potter even saw some ice-time shorthanded in the second period. 
    • This was the fourth back-to-back this month for the Bruins, and they've only lost once in those eight games. That loss was back on Saturday, March 1 vs the Capitals. 
    • Chad Johnson's stats now read as: 15-3-1, .921 SV% and a 2.14 GAA. His worst game in the past four months was back on February 26 vs the Sabres when he gave up five goals. His goals given up since January 1st?: 2, 1, 2, 1, 5, 2, 0, 1, 3, 2, 2, 2, 1. Not bad at all for a backup netminder.