On Mr. Hockey's 81st birthday, Zdeno Chara of the Boston Bruins had a little tribute of his own, getting the proverbial Gordie Howe Hat Trick: a goal, an assist, and a fight. No, it was Chara, not Milan Lucic I'm talking about. In the first period of the game against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Chara (6 foot 9!, 255 pounds) got into a dustup with Tampa's heavyweight, Evgeny Artyukhin near the benches and after a bit of shoving, Chara grabbed Artyukhin (6 foot 5, 254 pounds) and just started pounding him with right hands forcing Artyukhin to hold on to Chara and force him to the ice in a bear hug. Both got fighting majors for the fracas and it seemed to light a fire under the big Bruins defender.
At 6:56 of the 2nd, Chara took a nifty pass at the side of the net from Patrice Bergeron and tapped in his 17th goal of the season past Tampa's Mike McKenna. That goal tied Chara career high for goals in one season. He wasn't done yet. At 13:35 of the 2nd, Chuck Kobasew scored his 20th of the season on a tip in of a blast from the point by Chara, giving him the Gordie Howe Hat Trick. Not to be out done, Lucic didn't record any points, but he did drop Josef Melichar (with one thundering punch!) after Melichar threw an elbow at Lucic's head. Big mistake. Gordie would have been proud.
As far as scoring goes, the Bruins easily won the game 3-1 and outshot Tampa 39-25. With the win, the Bruins took another step closer to solidifying their lead in the Eastern Conference standings and if both the Washington Capitals and New Jersey Devils lose tomorrow night, the Bruins will have the home ice advantage through the first 2 rounds of the playoffs. Right now, Boston leads the Caps by 9 points and the Devils by 10.
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