By Scott McLaughlin/DFP Staff
It takes more than a good goalie to shut a team out in the National Hockey League. It takes strong defensive efforts from everyone –– the netminder, the defensemen and the forwards. That’s exactly what the Bruins got in their 3-0 blanking of the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday night.
Tim Thomas saved all 27 shots he faced en route to his second shutout of the season, but he wasn’t called on to make any spectacular saves, and he rarely had to face more than one or two shots in succession. That’s because Boston’s (8-7-2) defensemen did a great job of clogging up the middle of the ice, keeping the Penguins (12-6-0) to the outside and clearing out rebounds.
“The one thing that was really hurting us [earlier this season] was the fact that we weren’t scoring goals, and that really put a cloud over the fact that we were still playing well defensively,” Boston coach Claude Julien said. “Now we score a few goals, and all of a sudden our defense becomes something everybody notices and respects. The guys in front blocked a lot of shots, and Timmy made the saves when he had to.”
The forwards also did their part, consistently breaking plays up on the backcheck by taking away the third man into the zone and picking up defensemen who jumped in on the rush.
“I’ve never been on a team where the forwards work this hard,” defenseman Derek Morris said. “I keep giving our forwards credit, but our system runs well when our forwards do a nice job of coming back. We’re just biding time for them. We’re plugging up the middle. We might have to block a shot here or there, but our forwards are doing such a good job of taking that high guy away that we can read off of them.”
The defensemen and forwards combined to block an astounding 22 shots, repeatedly giving up their bodies to take away shooting lanes. The team’s all-around effort in its own zone was highlighted by Pittsburgh’s measly two shots on goal in the first period –– the fewest shots given up by Boston in one period since Jan. 3 of last season.
“I thought our guys did a great job tonight at blocking a lot of shots,” Julien said. “A lot of it was our D’s, and some forwards, but our D’s were doing a good job at fronting those, and we had some big blocks.”
Despite outshooting the Penguins, 10-2, in the opening frame, the teams entered the locker rooms scoreless after one. But it didn’t take the Bruins long to capitalize in the second. Just 1:36 into the period, Matt Hunwick pinched in from his point position and tried to jam a shot by Marc-Andre Fleury (26 saves) from the right doorstep, but was denied.
After Steve Begin’s rebound attempt was also saved, Hunwick picked up the puck at the left side of the net and backhanded it just under the crossbar for his fourth goal of the season. Initially, it was ruled no goal, but when play finally came to a stop over a minute later, the refs reviewed it and saw that the puck clearly crossed the line before bouncing out.
Boston struck again early in the third. After Morris made a great diving play to break up a Pittsburgh 2-on-1, Mark Recchi hit Daniel Paille with a long outlet pass to send Paille in on a breakaway. He promptly picked his spot and beat Fleury with a wrist shot to the blocker side for his first goal in a Bruins uniform. Recchi’s assist was the 900th of his career, making him the 18th player in NHL history to reach that milestone.
Patrice Bergeron tacked on an empty netter with 3.5 seconds to go to cap off the scoring. It was his sixth goal of the season.
The win gave Boston its first back-to-back wins of the season.
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