Bruins slip past Senators for 5th consecutive win

Boston's Brad Marchand and Zdeno Chara scored third-period goals as the Bruins rallied for their fifth consecutive victory, a 2-1 decision over the host Ottawa Senators on Wednesday night. The veteran Bruins duo scored 3 1/2 minutes apart to erase a 1-0 lead that the Senators grabbed in the first minute of the third period.

Goalie Tuukka Rask stopped 33 of 34 shots for Boston, which won both games of its back-to-back and beat Ottawa for the second time. The Bruins, who posted an 8-1 victory at Montreal on Tuesday, improved to 6-0-1 in their past seven games. They played without top-line center Patrice Bergeron (lower body) for the fourth time in the past six games.

Thomas Chabot scored, and Anders Nilsson recorded 19 saves for the Senators, who lost their second straight and have scored one total goal in their past two games. Fresh off the game at Montreal on Tuesday, Boston struggled to find any kind of offensive push early as the Senators clogged the neutral zone and kept the Bruins from driving in and challenging Nilsson.

Boston finally posted its first shot on goal nine minutes in, and Ottawa outshot the visitors 9-3 in the first period. The Senators also controlled play in the second and pushed most of the attack but could not send a shot past Rask.

Ottawa again dominated in shots in the frame 15-7, as the 10 shots on goal by Boston equaled its lowest through 40 minutes this season. In a wild two-on-two sequence in the first minute of the third, Boston's Anders Bjork tried to tap in a pass from Chris Wagner on a rush, missed the puck and slid inside the goal with Nilsson.

The puck wrapped around to Ottawa's Chris Tierney, who fed a pass to Chabot as he streaked through the neutral zone. The defenseman ended the charge by flipping his third goal over Rask at the 41-second mark. However, Marchand took a slick pass from Bjork and slipped in his 18th goal in at 5:15 for a 1-1 tie, and Brendan Gaunce slid a pass over to Chara, who blasted in his fifth goal at 8:45 for a 2-1 lead.

Rask stood strong and closed out the win in the final two minutes after Ottawa pulled Nilsson for the extra skater. The Bruins signed Massachusetts native forwards Charlie Coyle (six years, $5.25 million per season) and Wagner (three years, $1.35 million per season) to contract extensions a few hours before the game.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)