Ehrhoff, Czarnik Bright Spots in B's Loss to Montreal

QUEBEC CITY - Christian Ehrhoff was hoping to make an impact any way he could. Despite only being in Bruins camp for a couple of days, the veteran blue liner did just that on Tuesday night in the B's 4-3 loss to the Montreal Canadiens in Quebec City.
Ehrhoff, in camp on a professional tryout agreement, scored on a blazing one-timer from the left point. He made a number of other strong plays, but admitted there is still plenty of work to do.

"I felt pretty good," Ehrhoff said following the loss. "Third period, there were a couple plays I wish I could do over again, but every game goes like that I think.
"There's obviously a few things system-wise that I've got to improve on and I'll take the next couple days to do that."
The goal - which put the Bruins up, 2-0, just 1:29 into the second - came off of another beautiful feed from David Backes, who had two helpers on Tuesday night, giving him a total of five in just two preseason games.
"David Backes made a nice play on the blue line. I just had a wide open shot and had time to pick the corner and put it there," said Ehrhoff. "When opportunity is there I definitely want to be involved and make some plays out there."
Bruins Head Coach Claude Julien did not want to make a complete assessment of Ehrhoff's play off of just one game.
"It was one of those games where we'll take the time to evaluate him," said Julien. "He did score a big goal, but at the same time we went down to five D's pretty early there, so some of our D's you could tell by the second half of the game."

Miller Leaves With an Injury

The Bruins were playing with just five defensemen because of a lower-body injury to Kevan Miller, who went down early in the first period and did not return.
"I haven't had a chance to talk to the trainers," said Julien. "Probably in the regular season he could have been back and right now it was just a matter of making the right decisions.
"We'll see. They'll reevaluate him back home and we'll go day to day for now, I guess."

Bruins Can't Hold On

The Bruins got out to leads of 2-0 and 3-2, but were unable to hold on to either. Goals by Ryan Spooner (his second of the preseason) and Ehrhoff got the Black & Gold rolling, but Montreal answered with one-timer tallies from Jeff Petry and Arturri Lehkonen to knot things at 2.
Austin Czarnik put the Bruins back ahead, 3-2, with a strong individual effort on the shorthand just 20 seconds into the third, but the lead didn't last a shift.
Only 18 seconds later, Alex Galchenyuk scored on yet another one-timer, this one from the right circle on the power play. Daniel Carr's marker with just under five minutes to go sealed the 4-3 win for Montreal.
"It was a pretty intense hockey game, but at the same time I just felt that it was an exhibition game by the way we played, lots of mistakes tonight," said Julien. "Can certainly tell that some guys are tired and some guys are rusty.
"This is why preseason becomes important for us to clean off those things and give some guys some reps to make sure they get better.
"There are things as a team that you want to correct so that you can minimize them going forward."

Czarnik Impresses Once Again

One of the highlights of the night was Czarnik, who continued the strong play he has displayed so far this preseason. The 23-year-old center has played significant minutes on the penalty kill and took advantage Tuesday night.
On his goal, Czarnik charged toward the Montreal zone and won a battle for a loose puck after it bounced over the stick of Canadiens defenseman Andrei Markov. After collecting the puck, Czarnik roofed one over the right shoulder of Montreal goalie Al Montoya for a shorthanded tally, his second goal of the preseason.

"It's been a good camp so far, I can't complain," said Czarnik, who admitted he didn't even look when he fired the shot towards the net. "It's a lot of learning here, focusing on the d-zone. That's one of the things I've been focusing on. But everything's taking care of itself, so I'm excited to still be here."
Julien has been impressed with what he's seen from the Miami University product.
"He's been good - that's why he's still here and still playing," said Julien. "To me, he did well and he's giving himself a real good chance here. We've got a few games and over a week left before we start the season, we'll see where we end up with that.
"But definitely happy with his play so far. No matter what he's played well enough right now to be here."