Bruins double up Senators for 50th win

The Bruins defeated the Ottawa Senators Thursday night at the Garden by a 2-1 final. Before the puck even dropped on tonight's game, David Krejci was a winner. A winner of the Bruins '7th Player Award,' voted on by the fans.

The Senators were here to play, however, as just over five minutes into the game, the Ottawa Captain lit the lamp. Daniel Alfredsson used a screen in front of the net to beat Tim Thomas for his 24th goal of the season.

With the Senators out in front by a goal, things were pretty restless heading into the first period intermission.

Early in the second period, Boston got things turned around when Milan Lucic ripped a wicked slap shot past Alex Auld. Lucic's snipe was his 17th of the season.

In the final minutes of the middle stanza, Jarkko Ruutu took a run at Tim Thomas and his teammates didn't like it. Especially, one PJ Axelsson. Yes, Axelsson, who is not known for being a tough guy, jumped on Ruutu and then others joined. Shane Hnidy was the guy who ended up looking for blood, but the officials stepped to brake up the fracas.

Boston came out for the third period and quickly took it to the Senators. Just three minutes into the third, it was Marc Savard netting his 24th goal of the season on a nice feed from Axelsson.

After the Bruins took the one goal lead, it was Ottawa who carried the rest of the third period play. However, the Senators were not able to beat Thomas.

Then with 1:55 to play in the game, Mark Recchi went to the box and Ottawa pulled Auld for a six-on-four advantage. The Bruins were able to hold off the Senators, as Thomas made a great save on Alfredsson with just seconds remaining for a Boston, 2-1 win.

The win gave Boston their 50th of the season and moved the Bruins magic number to one for clinching the Eastern Conference. The Bruins are nine points up on the Washington Capitals with five games to go.

The Eastern Conference is a lot more interesting at the bottom of the conference.

Here's a look...

1) Boston - 110 points (5 games remaining)

2) Washington - 101 points (5 games remaining)

3) New Jersey - 98 points (5 games remaining)

4) Carolina - 93 points (4 games remaining)

5) Philadelphia - 92 points (6 games remaining)

6) Pittsburgh - 92 points (5 games remaining)

7) Montreal - 90 points (5 games remaining)

8) New York - 89 points (4 games remaining)

9) Florida - 87 points (5 games remaining)