BOSTON – The Bruins didn’t score much, but they scored enough to take home a win in their final preseason dress rehearsal prior to the start of the season.
David Backes hit a streaking Ryan Spooner with a home run stretch pass, and the speedy forward did the rest by roofing a wrist shot past Steve Mason to take the 1-0 overtime win over the Philadelphia Flyers at TD Garden. The exciting 3-on-3 goal finished off a successful night for the newly formed “DReaD Line” of David Krejci, Spooner and Backes that looks like they may start the season together.
The Bruins and Flyers were locked in a scoreless tie for the first 50 plus minutes of a game that was well-played, competitive and balanced toward the defensive side of the scales through the bulk of the game.
Likewise, both goalies were superb for the B’s and Flyers with Tuukka Rask handling some heavy traffic around the net, and Steve Mason shutting down a Ryan Spooner partial breakaway in the first period of action.
Unfortunately for the Bruins it looked like they might have lost young center Austin Czarnik after he was leveled by a high, late hit from Flyers defenseman and cheap shot artist Radko Gudas midway through the third period.
Tuukka Rask finished with 27 saves in the shutout victory as his final tune-up before next week’s season opener in Columbus vs. the Blue Jackets.