The next in a series of blogs reviewing some of my favourite moments from the just-completed 2010-11 National Hockey League season:
It was the game where, if you were five minutes or so late for the face-off and you wandered in to see a 0-0 score on the board about thirty seconds into the contest you might've thought it was no big deal, that you hadn't missed anything but a mundane opening half-minute of hockey. Normally, yes, it would probably be correct. But not on this night at TD Garden in Boston, MA when the Dallas Stars came to town.
All hell broke lose in this one, very early on. The puck was dropped, and exactly one second later, there was a fight. It was noted pugilist - and sociopath, if you listen to Jack Edwards - Steve Ott taking on Boston hardman Gregory Campbell. Fair to say, Ott got the upper hand and won the bout. Both guys went to the box, Campbell sporting a bloodied nose as souvenir. No harm, no foul.
There was a second face-off at 19:59. As the puck was about to be dropped, Boston's Shawn Thornton was having words with Dallas' Krys Barch. Almost as soon as the puck hit the ice, the gloves were off, and there it was, the second fight in as many seconds. For the record, Thornton scored a big win in this one, really tagging Barch towards the end. The crowd cheered him to the box, like they'd cheered Campbell a moment or two before.
On NESN, Jack Edwards hilariously noted that the teams were on pace for a serious NHL record for penalty minutes.
A third face-off occured, and, amazingly, the puck was swept back towards the Bruins defensive end. But before any of the B's skaters could look to move up on Andrew Raycroft in the Dallas goal mouth...yep, another fight! And this one was a ripper, Adam McQuaid of Boston and Dallas's Brian Sutherby. Neither is exactly a shrinking violet. Three fights in four seconds. And another win for a Bruin, with McQuaid getting on top after a wonderful few seconds of exchanged rights and lefts.
So the clock showed 19:56 and you could've come in thinking that not much had happened as you took your seats. Bad day to get stuck in traffic! It only got better for the capacity crowd at TD Garden, many of whom probably found it hard to believe what they were saying. Talk about old school hockey! The game had a Bruins vs. Canadiens circa 1970 feel about it.
After a stoppage to repair some glass that had come unstuck after fans had pounded on it so fiercely during the early fight-filled seconds of the game, Milan Lucic scored off of a sweet feed from David Krejci. That made it 3 fights and a goal in 35 pulsating seconds of hockey. "Are ya having fun yet?" Jack Edwards screamed on NESN. If you were watching this one and you weren't having fun, you had to be dead!
For the record, there were four fights and four Boston goals in the first period, as well as a couple of wonderful point-blank saves by Tukka Rask, in goal for the B's. The last fight took place when the Stars' Adam Burish fired a puck on the Boston goal after three whistles from the referees. Andrew Ference took exception and expressed his displeasure by trying to rearrange Burish's face.
The YouTube video has it all - 5 minutes of amazing fighting, skating, shooting and saves.
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