Krejci scores in OT to lift Bruins past Hurricanes

BOSTON -- Home ice continued to be kind to the Boston Bruins. The road continued to be difficult for the Carolina Hurricanes.

David Krejci scored 1:28 into overtime after Jarome Iginla led the rush into the Hurricanes zone, and the Bruins improved to 6-0-2 in their past eight games at TD Garden with a 3-2 win Saturday afternoon.

Iginla drew two defensemen to him as he drove down the right wing, and Carolina goaltender Cam Ward moved out toward his left in anticipation of a shot. Instead, Iginla passed to Krejci in the slot. The Boston center dangled until Ward went down, then roofed the game-winning shot.

"It was basically all [Iginla]," Krejci said. "It was like 1-against-2. He split the D. I didn't think he saw me, but he did. And I kind of had it easy, an easy job, to put it in a half-open net."

The Hurricanes (8-10-5) picked up their first point in six road games, but they are winless in their past six away from home and in their past four overall (0-3-1). The Bruins (15-6-2) are 1-0-1 through two games of a three-game homestand and 2-0-0 against Carolina this season.

Krejci, Iginla and Milan Lucic, who make up the Bruins' top line, had been limited to two goals (one into an empty net) and one assist in the past five games. Krejci hadn't scored a point in any of those games. Lucic had an assist on a power-play goal by Zdeno Chara in the first period.

"I felt like the last game against [the St. Louis Blues] we played pretty good," Krejci said of the Bruins' 3-2 shootout loss Thursday. "We had some chances. Obviously we didn't score. It gets kind of frustrating. But we kind of stayed positive, and today we got a couple goals from our line. Hopefully it was a breakthrough for our line and we can be putting the puck in the net more often."

Prior to the overtime goal, Bruins defenseman Johnny Boychuk took possession of the puck in the Boston zone after forward Carl Soderberg and Hurricanes center Jordan Staal fell in the corner. Carolina coach Kirk Muller was not pleased Soderberg wasn't called for a penalty.

"We had a guy tripped up in the corner," Muller said. "I mean, we lose a guy. We lose a guy and he goes down, let's call a spade a spade. Lose a guy, it's 4-on-3, they come down, they execute and make a nice play. But we lose a guy in the corner, there is going to be a breakdown when a guy goes down like that."

The first period didn't start well for Carolina defenseman Andrej Sekera. He blocked a Shawn Thornton slap shot and had to be helped off the ice at 3:12. He wasn't gone long, however, and returned in time to make sure the Hurricanes' first power play was a success.

With Soderberg off for hooking, Sekera took a wrist shot from the blue line that went past no fewer than four bodies and eluded Chad Johnson at 5:53 for a 1-0 Carolina lead. It was the Hurricanes' first power-play goal in four games after they went 0-for-12 in their prior three.

The Bruins outshot the Hurricanes 6-0 before the power play. By the time of Sekera's goal, shots were 7-6, Boston. It took a double-minor for high sticking against Manny Malhotra to get the Bruins' offense into full gear.

Chara swept a rebound of a Lucic shot into the back of the net at 14:49 to tie the game 1-1. The Bruins went to the first intermission with a 14-6 advantage in shots on goal.

Carolina went 22:43 without a shot on goal from near the midpoint of the first period until well into the second. The Bruins outshot Carolina 12-4 in the second period and held a 26-10 advantage through 40 minutes. Johnson held up his end of the bargain in Boston's net, and Reilly Smith gave the Bruins a 2-1 lead with a goal at 13:31.

Soderberg's pass from between the hash marks to the front of the net hit the skate of Hurricanes defenseman Tim Gleason and deflected to Smith, who cut across the slot and beat Ward with a backhander to the short side.

The Hurricanes showed their most jump offensively in the early stages of the third period. Carolina closed the shots differential a bit by outshooting Boston 14-11 in the third period, and tied the game.

"I think that's huge for us," Muller said. "Not too many teams are going to walk in here and get points the way they're playing; they're a good hockey team, but we stuck with it. We battled through a little adversity earlier on, but I thought the guys played hard, played well, and that's a big point. We can kind of turn the corner and gain on and build on [it Sunday] hopefully (against the Ottawa Senators)."

Even when killing penalties, the Hurricanes were working hard to score the equalizer. During one penalty kill, Johnson stopped an Eric Staal shot on a 2-on-1. Later in the period, Patrick Dwyer scored shorthanded on a breakaway after he stole an errant Boston pass in the Carolina end. Dwyer roofed a shot past Johnson to tie the score 2-2 with 8:50 remaining in regulation.

"We came in and we talked and said our backs are against the wall and we have to scratch and claw to get back into this hockey game, and try to win the game, and I think we went out there and played pretty well in the third," Dwyer said.