After playing just a single period of hockey over the Bruins' last eight games, Tim Thomas emerged Saturday afternoon and turned in a stellar performance, leading the Bruins to a 5-0 victory over the visiting Calgary Flames. The win, easily the easiest one the B's have pulled off at the TD Garden in quite some time, was the netminder's first "W" in three full weeks.
"Yeah he was outstanding tonight. He played well and he played the way we know Tim can play." Head Coach Claude Julien said of his goaltender, who stopped all 31 shots he faced.
"It just gives us so much confidence to know that you’ve got two goaltenders that stand tall for your team. We couldn’t have asked for that type of performance at a better time. Tim stepping in after playing for a while shows his real good mental toughness and mental strength and we liked his game tonight."
Thomas got the call two days after Tuukka Rask allowed five goals on just 18 shots to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Last year's Vezina Trophy Winner was sharp throughout, making all of the necessary saves against a squad renown for making things difficult on opposing netminders by aggressively crashing the net.
"Well that’s what they do. We actually saw that in the video before the game. That’s what they do so you’re prepared for it." Thomas said of Calgary's knack for encroaching his crease. "I’m just not going to change the way that I play. That’s the worst thing you can do, because they’ll get goals off of it, if you change the way that you play."
The 35-year-old netminder was mindful of potentially being rusty, as Rask's superb play has severely limited his playing time.
"That was like my fifth full game in like seven weeks. I played periods, but not [a full game]. So I didn’t really know what to expect, but the team came out strong in front of me. They did a really good job of making me feel comfortable and that helped a lot."
Boston scored five unanswered goals on Kiprusoff, eventually chasing him in favor of Vesa Toskala. Dennis Seidenberg opened the scoring in the first period with his third goal of the year, and notably his first goal as a Bruin. Seidenberg's strike came on the PP, as the Bruins finished 3-for-4 on the afternoon and put their woeful 0-for-22 stretch on the man advantage to bed.
"It was encouraging." Seidenberg said of his tally. "Hopefully it’s not just a one-game thing. Hopefully we can keep it going and move the puck well. Keep getting pucks to the net. I think that’s the main thing."
The B's got goals from five different skaters, as Mark Recchi, Zdeno Chara, Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci all finished the day with a goal and an assist each. Krejci now has six points in his last three games, as the young pivot has ramped up his efforts coming down the stretch.
"Yeah it’s really coming around, I think he’s definitely more confident. I think the things that we were working on and he was struggling with at times, his feet not always moving and he’s a great stick handler, but if you’re not moving your feet, you become an easy target." Julien said of the center's improved play.
"So right now he’s moving a little bit more and I know that sometimes he’ll stop and slow down the play, but he does it at the right time and he finds those trailers. So I think his strengths are really starting to show right now and obviously it couldn’t be a better time."
With three wins in their last four games, it seems as though the Bruins are collectively hitting their stride. With just eight games remaining in the regular season, and the competition in the Eastern Conference playoff race refusing to retreat, the B's will need everyone on top of their game from here on out if they plan on suiting up for an 83rd time.
"There’s no room now not to, so we have to keep going, keep going, keep going." Shawn Thornton said, when asked about putting a solid string of games together. "Like I said, we lost last game. The effort was there. We had fifty-something shots and you don’t hit that by floating around out there. I think we strung together four pretty good efforts now and we have to keep doing that for the remainder of the season."
JC
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