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| Tyler Seguin buries a penalty shot past Giants Select goalie Steve Murphy, one of two goals the new Bruin had in last night’s win. (Michael Cooper for The Boston Globe) |
BELFAST — It was slow at the start, fast and furious in the middle, and in the end a face-saving one-night twirl in Northern Ireland for Boston’s bunch of Black-and-Gold leprechauns.
“Not an easy game to play,’’ said Bruins coach Claude Julien, moments after his squad had rubbed out the United Kingdom’s best and brightest, 5-1, last night in an exhibition game before a full house of some 5,500 at Odyssey Arena. “We had nothing to gain and everything to lose, and they had nothing to lose and everything to gain.’’
Rookie Tyler Seguin scored a pair of goals, including one on a penalty shot with 3:38 to go that closed out the scoring, and Zdeno Chara, Brad Marchand, and Milan Lucic also tallied.
That may sound like easy work, but the pesky Giants Selects, 20 players rounded up from clubs in Wales, Scotland, Great Britain, and here at the edge of the Irish Sea, held the Bruins scoreless for the first period and more than 18 minutes of the second.
Amid the freezeout, with the Bruins at times looking awkward and out of synch on the wider European ice sheet (15 feet more than the NHL variety), the Selects took a brief 1-0 lead. Racing down the left side with a feed from defenseman Jonathan Weaver, winger Jade Galbraith unloaded a snap shot from near the left wing faceoff dot that screamed past Tuukka Rask high on the glove side.
Giants, 1-0, and the team wearing the green was Boston — green around the gills. The Bruins were showing uncharacteristic jitters against a team with a talent level a notch below the American Hockey League.
“A little bit of the nerves,’’ said Chara, whose goal ended up being the winner. “In a different environment like this, it doesn’t take a lot. Maybe we were squeezing the stick a little at the start. You have to adjust.’’
Rask, in fact, believed it might have been the wider rink that played a part in Galbraith’s goal sailing past him high to the glove side. Accustomed now to NHL rinks, after growing up on big sheets in Finland, Rask said he probably didn’t read his angle to the shooter properly. He gave Galbraith credit for a laser of a shot, but had he been better positioned, he felt, he would have been able to grab it.
“Clear shot like that, I should have it,’’ lamented Rask, who probably will yield the cage to Tim Thomas when the Bruins play their final preseason tuneup Tuesday night in Lieberc, Czech Republic. “One of those that I’d like to have back.’’
The goal ended up being the boot to the backside the Bruins needed. Less than three minutes after the Giants posted the lead, Seguin scored his first of the night on a power play with help from Dennis Seidenberg and Matt Hunwick. It was the first of three goals by the Bruins in 46 seconds. Chara’s goal at 18:45 broke it open, 2-1, and Marchand’s strike at 19:10 increased it to 3-1.
“No question,’’ said Rask. “They got their goal, and then you could see our skill level go up.’’
Lucic’s goal at 8:09 of the third made it 4-1 and then Seguin had a breakaway that he failed to slip past goalie Steve Murphy, a backhander at the left post. However, Seguin was awarded a penalty shot, and the 18-year-old put it away with a clever forehand stuff at the right post. The No. 2 pick in the June draft appropriately made it look like child’s play.
“Not one of our best games,’’ said Julien, who mixed and matched his power-play sets all night. “But better than our last one. We’re getting there.’’
The destination is Prague, where the NHL season opens for real with weekend games against the Coyotes. The Bruins still have work to do before the season-opening faceoff.
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