Bruins Saved By Thomas & Satan’s Shootout Efforts

Former Bruins coach Don Cherry drops the puck before the Maple Leafs and Bruins game in Boston.

At this rate, the Bruins can’t care if it’s pretty, it’s all about getting the two points and staying afloat in the rapidly changing Eastern Conference playoff picture. Fortunately for Boston, they did just in their survival against the Toronto Marlies, errr, I mean Maple Leafs tonight at the TD Garden. In what’s bound to be their final match-up of the season in Boston ’cause everyone knows Toronto is beyond cooked at this point in the season, the Bruins put together perhaps their most sloppy effort of the season in a winning cause? Who would’ve thought that that was even a remote possibility for a team plagued with just plain rotten luck?

Starving for something to cheer for, it just took 63 seconds for Michael Ryder and the Bruins to make the Garden come to their feet with a quick goal as Ryder appeared to just sneak the puck by an out of position J.S Giguere. However, much to the protest of Dion Phaneuf, and rightfully so, the raucous Garden crowd was quickly silenced by the three words a hometown crowd hates to hear with Ryder’s goal quickly ruled off due to a “distinct kicking motion”, denying Boston an early edge.

Striking first, Shawn Thornton catches the Toronto defense with their pants down and connects with Miroslav Satan who puts a wrister from just over the Toronto blue-line and through Giguere to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead and Satan his fourth goal of the season in twenty games.

Two minutes after the Satan tally, Dennis Seidenberg made his first impact on the Bruins by earning two minutes in the box for a delay of game while some of the Garden crowd were frantically looking through their game-day poster roster-listings on the back, either to figure out who #44 was or if Aaron Ward had returned to Boston. Killing off the Toronto power-play with some help from Tim Thomas‘ poise in the crease, the Bruins and Leafs wasted no time in getting their hands dirty, a newly common practice when these two teams get together.

Dropping the mitts in the Bruins zone, Leafs enforcer Colton Orr and Bruins heavyweight Milan Lucic quickly started throwing haymakers that repeatedly connected on Lucic and while #17 in black was able to get a few good shots in, the decision would clearly go to Orr. The nastiness wasn’t done just yet thanks to former Bruin Wayne Primeau and Shawn Thornton, who wasted nearly no time for the puck to drop before thrashing one another on the ice, each earning five minute majors.

Seeming to get a boost from the two fights, or so they’d tell you, the Leafs countered the Bruins’ goal with Viktor Stalberg netting his third goal of the season with a wrist shot beating Tim Thomas blocker side to knot things up at one a piece. On a goal that simply looked so easy for Stalberg, what went wrong for the Boston defense seemed to fall on the fan-labeled scapegoat of the 2009-10 season–Dennis Wideman, who was in no-man’s land as he lazily watched Stalberg move in for the shot, perhaps believing a cross-ice pass was on the way.

Killing off two penalties to their blue-liners in the first half of the second period, it was a Boston defensemen who catapulted the Bruins to a 2-1 lead when Johnny Boychuk teed a one-timer off on a feed from Marco Sturm that blazed by Giguere with 4:39 left in the period. For Boychuk, it was his third career goal and second against the Toronto Maple Leafs, both coming on absolute bullets from the blue-line.

With 40 minutes in the books, Bruins fans weren’t sold. They’ve read this book before, they’ve heard this song before, and they’ve danced this dance before. The 2009-10 Bruins were quickly becoming famous for letting leads slip away in the third period, and after a four-goal wound opened up by the Habs in the third period on Tuesday, nobody was celebrating just yet. Tyler Bozak proved their worries to be valid when he caught the Bruins in the vulnerable minute of an expiring power-play and tied the contest up at two a piece with 13 minutes to go.

Watching yet another Boston lead slip away, and to the NHL’s second worst team no less, the hostility of the Bruins crowd began to show as boo-bird’s, agonizing shouts of “shoot!”, and groans emerged from the 17,000+ in attendance.

Providing an exciting finish, the Leafs and Bruins each failed to capitalize on several scoring chances as the battle of veteran goaltenders was going to be raged on past regulation.

In what was honestly just five minutes of battling for positioning, the Leafs’ best opportunity came on a two-on-one rush from Phil Kessel, who was unable to get much of anything going past the Bruins defense, anchored by Zdeno Chara and for the third time in the last four home games, the B’s were heading to the shootout.

Electing to shoot first the B’s turned to David Krejci, coming off a great Olympic run for the Czech Republic, Krejci was unable to even get a shot off against Giguere and the pressure was on Thomas. Shooting first for Toronto in the bottom of round one, former Bruin Phil Kessel had the chance to perhaps put the dagger into the B’s hearts but it appeared that Thomas had the 22-year old Wisconsin native read the entire way down the ice, stoning the Leaf. Neither Ryder of Jamie Lundmark could put one by a ‘tender in round two and the puck was on Miroslav Satan’s stick in the top of round three. Finally connecting on what was considered what one of his strengths when originally signed by the Bruins in January, Satan pulled off a beautiful deke and slid the puck in around the leg pad of Giguere with a nifty little backhander.

Thrown into the contest with his first NHL shootout attempt, the fate of the game rested on the shoulders of 23-year old Bozak, or 35-year old Tim Thomas depending on your outlook. Either way, the 2009 Vezina continued to play the role of a brick-wall, stopping Bozak and giving Boston their first win on Garden ice since December 30th.

A Tip of the Cap To…

This one should be pretty obvious–Tim Thomas, who had been riding the Bruins pine since February 2nd, responded well and had an unbelievably strong finish to the game that proved to be instrumental to the ‘W’ tonight for the B’s. Could Thomas be set to steal the starting job back from the now injured Tuukka Rask, or was this simply a good game against a bad team? Personally, I’m going to have go with a determined Thomas is back in net for the Bruins. Known as a guy who thrives off being doubted, one has to believe that the trade rumors and essential back-stabbing by the fans towards the NHL’s best goaltender last season got to him and put Thomas back into the 2007-08 ‘prove the doubters wrong’ mindset.

What’s Next?

The Bruins will pack their bags and head to Uniondale, New York, where they’ll be kicking off a seven game road-trip with a Saturday matinee against Kyle Okposo and the New York Islanders. The Bruins are 1-1-1 against the Isles this season, who have experienced a mix of highs and lows this week after being beat down by the Atlanta Thrashers offense just two nights after decimating the Chicago Blackhawks goaltending.

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