There is no way to overlook the fact that Tim Thomas was awful for a long stretch of this season but it feels like right about now, with the playoffs starting in a few weeks, he's starting to find his game again.
Thomas (32-19-0) made 40 saves tonight as the Bruins (43-28-3) went into the Staples Center and broke the Kings' (37-26-12) six-game win streak, 4-2.
Zdeno Chara played in his 1000th NHL game so it must have been even sweeter since his team came out on top.
Boston freed themselves of a 1-1 deadlock entering the third period by scoring three goals in the final frame.
Former UMass-Amherst star Jonathan Quick (22 saves) did not play as well as the guy that he started over in the 2010 Olympics for the United States.
For once on the road, the B's benefited from some good bounces. Namely, a pass that went off Chris Kelly's (19th of the season) skate and into the net. That made it 3-1 and it held up after a review. Benoit Pouliot and Brian Rolston assisted on that one.
Earlier in the third, Milan Lucic (24th of the season) scored at 4:37 on a shot that trickled through Quick's five-hole. David Krejci and Jordan Caron had the assists.
Los Angeles didn't fold after Boston made it 3-1, Slava Voynov (7th of the season) put one past Thomas thanks to some traffic at 14:46. Thomas made some big saves though to keep the Bruins ahead and Brad Marchand (25th of the season) scored an empty-netter with one second left in regulation.
Kelly and Trevor Lewis fought in the first period, a very rare occurrence for Kelly although you wouldn't know that by the way he wailed on Lewis.
After a scoreless first, Patrice Bergeron (20th of the season) opened the scoring with a short-handed tally at 5:18 in the second. Brad Marchand intercepted a bad breakout pass and went in on Quick, who made the initial stop but Bergeron was there for the rebound.
At 13:17 something named Colin Fraser (2nd of the season) knotted it at 1 all thanks to Drew Doughty's impressive shot fake and pass. All Fraser had to do was redirect it in. Kyle Clifford had the second assist.
The effort wasn't there on Thursday in San Jose so it was nice to see the Bruins bounce back tonight against a solid team (sweeping the season series 2-0), that is fighting for every point since they are on the fringe of making or missing the Western Conference playoffs.
This three-game swing in California concludes tomorrow night with a visit to the Anaheim Ducks. It's the only meeting for the two teams this season and Anaheim is not going to make the playoffs so you can look at that two ways: 1) they have nothing to lose or 2) they're playing out the string and they'll pack it in if Boston can grab an early lead. All I know is that two more points particularly in a back-to-back game would be a wonderful result for the Bruins. Maybe Marty Turco will get another start?
Tweet
Follow @RichSlate
No comments:
Post a Comment