Boston Bruins Take Buffalo Sabres 5-2: Bruins, Tim Thomas Make Franchise History

The Boston Bruins continued their three game eastern road swing at the HSBC Arena in Buffalo with the Sabres who they took out of the playoffs last season. Ryan Miller and company are looking to exact some revenge for the ousting.

Buffalo has not had a great start with a 3-7-2 thus far, and have yet to win a home game this season (0-4-1).  Having lost their last three games, earning just one point in the OT loss to Atlanta, the Sabres are looking to stop the bleeding before they get too deep into the season.

2008-2009 Vezina winner Miller has not played a stellar game so far in this young season, having a record of 3-5-2, a save percentage of .903 and a GAA of 2.71.  Jhonas Enroth started the game for the Sabres as Miller is still day-to-day with a lower back injury.

The Bruins' offense has picked up significantly with 29 goals for and a league leading lowest goals against of 13.  St. Louis is the second lowest with 17.  While their offense has picked up, their defense has not changed; that is a good thing, as they were among the leaders last season with the least amount of goals allowed.

Red hot Tim Thomas was the first to admit that his team is a large part of the reason for his stellar 6-0-0 start this season when he was talking to NHL.com.

"The effort in front of me was great," Thomas said. "Our 'D' is doing an incredible job blocking shots when needed, clearing rebounds when needed. They're making life easy for me right now."

History is not on Thomas' side with his last five starts being in the losing column for him. Again, that was then and this is now.

First Period

The Bruins opened up the scoring early with a shorthanded goal by Brad Marchand just 3:32 into the game.  After he inadvertently got out of Bruins zone, he got the puck on a clearing attempt which left him all alone to go one on one with Enroth.  Marchand then popped it past Enroth stick side for a 1-0 lead.  This was Marchand's first career NHL goal.

The Bruins score again in the penalty kill and Marchand is involved with an assist as he broke up the Buffalo's power play push twice.  The second time he got it to Patrice Bergeron who shot at the net and Enroth stopped it but it rebounded right at an advancing Bergeron at the top of the left face off circle.  Bergeron made no mistake and buried it for the second shorthanded goal of the night for the Bruins.  Bruins 2-0.

Exactly two minutes afterward, Black Wheeler finally got his first goal of the season on a rebound and got it past Enroth low glove side. 3-0 Bruins.

Thomas was still perfect after five periods, and he looked very comfortable on net.  He only faced nine shots in the opening frame while the Sabres' Enroth faced 12 shots on net.

Second Period

Patrick Lalime was put in net for the Sabres to replace Enroth.

Michael Ryder skated up the right side of the ice to shot at Lalime at a bad angle.  Lalime did not have the left post covered as Ryder's weak wrist shot found its way into the net.  The goal marked Ryder's 300th NHL career point.  Bruins up 4-0.

Buffalo finally scored on Thomas on the the power play as Stafford scored on the rebound off Thomas' pads.  According to NESN, the goal and ended Thomas' shutout streak at 177 minutes and two seconds.  The NHL states the shutout streak ended at 167 minutes, and 12 seconds.  4-1 Bruins.

Shortly after the goal, Patrick Kaleta tried to goad Milan Lucic into a penalty and Lucic was only happy to oblige him with a bloody nose.  Kaleta, to an extent, succeeded in the penalty on Lucic, but got one of his own for Unsportsmanlike conduct and a 10 minute misconduct.  Not sure if it was worth it...

All in all, there were 11 infractions called on seven players in the period.

SOGs were in favor of Buffalo 11-8.

Final Frame

Most of the play was in the Buffalo area and about midway of the period, Buffalo's best chance to get back into the game was on Shawn Thornton and Patrice Bergeron's tripping penalties to give them a 37 second 5 on 3 but the Sabres couldn't convert.

Boston kept the defensive play up giving little time for the Sabres to generate any chances.

Andrej Sekera got Buffalo's second goal on a scramble in front of the net as the puck squirted out in front of the net right a Sekera's stick.  Sekera then pushed the puck at the net with a weak backhand and Thomas had no idea where it was.  Buffalo is the first team this season to score more than one goal on Thomas.  4-2 Bruins.

In the last three minutes, Lalime left the net but Lucic got the puck just as the Sabres were changing.  David Krejci skated the puck near the center line and passed it to Lucic who was skating right up the middle.  With little in front of him, Lucic wristed a shot at the net from just beyond the Sabres' blue line and the score was the final score of 5-2 for the Boston Bruins.

Postgame Analysis

This game marks the Bruins third win in a row.  The 2010/2011 Boston Bruins are the first to start at 5-0-0 on the road in franchise history, and Tim Thomas is the first Bruins goalie to start the season at 7-0-0.  Boston improves to 7-2-0 for the season.  Although the GAA will go up ever so slightly (about 0.72), Thomas cares more for the win rather than his personal statistics.

Buffalo has a 3-8-2 record after this game and their goal-tending woes continue after allowing 43 goals thus far this season.  The loss also extends their losing streak at home to six games; five games in regulation and one overtime loss.

SOGs were heavily in favor of the Sabres with a 35 to the Bruins' 26.

Next up are the Washington Capitals at the Verizon Center Friday, November 5th at 7 p.m. EST.  Boston played the Capitals two times this season so far, the Bruins have come out of it two for two wins and hope to make it a third straight win.

This is Cory Ducey saying "Hit Hard, But Keep It Clean"