Boston Bruins Tame Panthers in First Shootout Win: Tim Thomas Comes Up Big

The Boston Bruins came off a win off the Hot Atlanta Thrashers and got a nice three-day break to travel and take on the Florida Panthers.

The Bruins have won the previous two meetings thus far and were looking to keep that record going.

First Period

No scoring.

Second Period

Florida opened up the scoring by David Booth with just over a minute into the second frame.  Steven Kampfer coughed up the puck to Micheal Frolik who quickly passes to Booth.  Booth snapped it stick side on Tim Thomas—1-0 Panthers.

Late in the first half of the period, the Bruins showed an ample amount of pressure and it paid off.

Chara blasts one from the slot which rebounds to Micheal Ryder.  Ryder tried to poke it in point blank but Panthers Goalie Scott Clemmensen stopped that as well.  David Krejci was buzzing to Clemmensen's right and quickly backhanded it in to tie it up at one.

Late in the period, Frolik ripped a shot from the point which looked like it was high, but Mike Santorelli alertly batted the puck to redirect and threw Thomas off to count and the Panther regained the lead.  The play was reviewed but could not determine if the stick was high.  Panthers 2-1.

Third Period

The Bruins tied the game up on a nice tic-tac-goal move.

Micheal Ryder gained entry into the Florida zone to pass it to Blake Wheeler.  Wheeler then backhanded to Krejci who faked out Clemmensen to roof it with a backhand.

Extra Fun (OT)

No scoring but plenty of chances on both ends that could have ended it.

Extra Extra Fun (SO)

The dreaded shootout.  The Bruins were 0-3 in shootouts.

First Round

Mike Santorelli  FLA - Save

Tyler Seguin  BOS - Save

Second Round

Stephen Weiss  FLA - Save

Blake Wheeler  BOS - Goal

Third Round

Evgeny Dadonov  FLA - Save

BOS - Not Necessary

Boston wins their first shootout of the season and their second game in a row.

The Good:

Boston played with intensity this night and it was much needed for them to dig down and pull out the win.  They applied pressure very well and were patient in their chances.

Tim Thomas was excellent in net and kept them in the game (as did his counter part, Scott Clemmensen)

Lots of shots and net presence.  They really crowded Clemmensen, making his night very difficult.

Collapsing on their net.  While there were some situations that Thomas should not have been in, the Bruins did, overall played defensively well while applying the pressure offensively.

The Bad

Sloppy play led to several odd man rushes and breakaways that could have easily put the game square in Florida's favor.

The Ugly

Other than the sloppy play there really was no ugly in this game.  Not sloppy enough to call it ugly...

Next game is in the same state of Florida playing the Tampa Bay Lightning tomorrow night (Dec 28) at the St. Pete Times Forum.  The Bruins will, yet again, play three games in four nights and will have to travel in each of these games.  So far, Boston has split the season series with the Lightning.

In their last meeting, Boston obliterated them with a final score of 8-1 and the Lightning are looking to keep the wins on home ice against the B's.

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