Bruins Clinch Top Seed in the East - East Idaho News
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Bruins Clinch Top Seed in the East

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Getty Bruins Clinch Top Seed?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1396776796504Brian Babineau/NHLI via Getty Images(BOSTON) — Milan Lucic had two goals and an assist and Loui Ericksson added four assists to lead the Boston Bruins past the Philadelphia Flyers 5-2 Saturday, clinching the B’s the top-seed in the Eastern Conference.

The Bruins (53-18-7, 113 pts) were tied with the Flyers going into the third period but Johnny Boychuk and Lucic each scored in a 31 second span to give Boston the lead for good.

The Bruins are now two points ahead of the Saint Louis Blues (52-18-7, 111pts) for the NHL’s best record.

“You just have to look at our record,” Bruins head coach Claude Julien said. “We’re at 113 (points). I think that shows you overall we’ve been a pretty good team. We’ve had struggles at times, but I don’t think there’s an area I’d consider a weakness on the team.”

Philadelphia (39-29-9, 87pts) has now lost three straight and is in danger of falling out of the playoff picture.

“Every game is a must-win,” Flyers center Claude Giroux said. “There are a lot of teams behind us trying to make the playoffs. We have played good enough to be in the position we are right now and we can’t forget that. We have to remember that we are a good team and we are in this position because we did a lot of good things this year.”

Boston outshot the Flyers 42-26 including 22-8 in the third period.

Bruins center Patrice Bergeron recorded an assist to extend his consecutive point streak to 11 games.

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