Thomas outduels Fleury: Bruins win two in a row?!

What’s happened since the Boston Bruins last won consecutive games? Let’s put it this way: Kessel’s a Leaf, Aaron Ward’s in Carolina, and the average cost of a ticket to a Bruins game has doubled.

Tonight, for 60 minutes, the Bruins simply out-worked, out-hustled, and out-played the defending Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins.

The Penguins came into Boston still without alternate-captains Evgeni Malkin and Sergei Gonchar, who are among the Pens’ long injury list along with Tyler Kennedy, Kris Letang and Maxime Talbot.

Fortunately for the Penguins, they still had one already iconic player: Sidney Crosby. However, the Crosby Show was cancelled tonight as  the Bruins stingy defense made people in the crowd literally ask where number 87 was.

Led by the top line defensive pairing of Zdeno Chara and Derek Morris, the B’s defense held the Penguins to just two shots in the first period. How would Bruins netminder Tim Thomas react in the 2nd period after averaging facing just one shot every ten minutes?

In the second period, it was Matt Hunwickwho got the party started for Boston, scoring on a wrap-around in the opening two minutes of the period, a goal which wasn’t counted until about two minutes later. Initially, the goal horn sounded and the Bruins gathered for a celebration, however the goal was waved off and play resumed as Dennis Wideman raced down the ice and knocked Jordan Staal off the puck on a near breakaway.

After the whistle, the play went to review and the replay shown on Garden HDX clearly showed the puck going top shelf over Marc-Andre Fleury’s shoulder. As the B’s fans rejoiced before the call was made official, it was clear the B’s were going to be up 1-0.

As the call was made official by referee Bill McCreary, it was officially 1-0 in favor of the Killer B’s.

It turned out to be all the Bruins needed in what was perhaps the strongest effort of the season by Tim Thomas.

The second period provided a great test for the 2009 Vezina. The ailing Pens poured on an offensive onslaught of 13 shots in the second, Thomas answered by repeatedly stopping the Penguins with great poise and making it look easy in the process.

“Our team defense has been playing very well for I’d say the last seven or eight games,” B’s goalie Tim Thomas said following the game “and now we’re getting the offensive production we need to get the W’s, also.”

‘Very well’ may in fact be putting it too lightly as Boston has let up just eight goals in their last seven games. Led by a strong defense, Bruins goaltenders Tim Thomas and Tuukka Rask have put together a 1.14 goals against average over that span.

Early in the third period, it was Daniel Paille who finally tallied a goal on what has to be his fourthor fifth breakaway with the Bruins. It was Paille’s first goal on the season and first with the Bruins. More significantly, the goal also gave Mark Recchi his 900th career assist. In doing so, Recchi became the 18th player in NHL history to have 900 assists or more, adding to his already incredibly impressive career resume.

The Bruins continued their defensive shutdown of Pittsburgh in the third period, but it was the play of Marc-Andre Fleurythat kept the Pens in this game until nearly the final bell. With just over five minutes remaining in the period, Fleury made a simply insane save against David Krejci, where the number one overall pick from the 2003 NHL Draft was in a split and robbed a sure goal away from Krejci with a spectacular glove save.

The Bruins penalty kill capped off a win for the guys in black with an empty net knuckle-puck goal from Patrice Bergeron with four seconds left in the third period to make the final a three to zip Bruins win.

Ty’s Three Stars of the Game

1. Tim Thomas – The B’s anchor was simply in control tonight. Following a near goal after an odd bounce off the Garden glass, the 35-year old netminder regained his composure immediately and gave the Bruins all they needed to earn the win tonight, holding the Penguins to zero goals and stopping all 28 shots put on by Pittsburgh.

2. Derek Morris – You’ll look in your box score tomorrow and see a zero in the points column for Derek Morris, but man is this guy good. The puck-moving defensemen the Bruins signed to a one year deal over the summer has done an incredible job since being paired with Zdeno Chara. Morris complements Chara’s game ideally, more so than Aaron Ward and is a rock defensively while providing great chances for the Bruins forwards out in front of the net. Did I mention he was nearly out of tonight’s line-up with flu-like symptoms?

3. Marc-Andre Fleury – While the loss goes to the 24-year old Quebec native, Fleury was the lone reason that the Penguins weren’t blown out tonight. Fleury stopped 26 out of 28 shots and was a stud in net for nearly the entire 60 minutes of play.

Dumb Quote of the Night

Tonight, the dumb quote of the night was in the form of a sign as one fan held up a sign saying “Penguins Belong In The Arctic”. Normally, I’d be okay with this, but does this fan holding the sign believe that bears are native to Boston? Or perhaps that wings with feathers reside peacefully in Detroit?

Silly, just plain silly.

Jersey Spotting of the Night

Inside the Garden tonight, there were some conflicting feelings towards Phil Kessel. Upon entering the arena, I saw one jersey with Kessel’s name on the back and above it someone taped “Bring Back”. However, later in the night I saw a kid wearing a Phil Kessel player tee, with the words “Number 1 Pick” taped over Kessel.

Oh Phil, will it ever end?

What’s Next?

On Thursday night, it’ll be the Florida Panthers making their first trip to the TD Garden this season.

The Panthers are 5-9-1 thus far in 2009-10 and are coming off a discouraging loss to the Washington Capitals last Saturday night where Scott Clemmensen let up a career-high seven goals. The Panthers will likely be without Radek Dvorak along with David Booth for their match-up against Boston, a team they went 1-3-0 against last season.

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Ty