Such is the luck of the Bruins this year.
After neither the Panthers nor the Bruins could score through 65 minutes of regulation and overtime, Florida's Cory Stillman sent the Panthers home with a 1-0 win over Boston.
The offensive famine struck again on Thursday night, leaving the Bruins with a whopping 40 shots and zero goals to show for it, compared to Florida's 23. Panthers goaltender Tomas Vokoun was brilliant, withstanding a 19-shot attack in the second period to keep the game knotted at zero, single-handedly keeping Florida alive at the TD Garden.
Thomas was solid as usual, shutting out the Panthers through regulation and finishing with 23 big saves. As futile as Boston's offense was, the defense was the exact opposite, holding Florida to a single shot in the second period.
Both the Bruins and Panthers went 0-for-3 on the power play, but the trade-off was that Boston's penalty kill proved to be successful once again.
Panthers 1, Bruins 0 (SO)
TD Garden, Boston, Mass.
Nov. 12, 2009
Headliner: Two words explain why the Panthers escaped with a victory on Thursday: Tomas Vokoun. With no help from his offense, the netminder made an astounding 40 saves — including 19 in a brilliant
second period — allowing Florida to hang on in a game it had no business winning.
Grinder: Just two days after shutting out the Penguins, Tim Thomas
came back
with yet another brilliant effort. In his last five games, he's allowed a total of just four goals, and he stood strong
throughout this war of attrition as both teams fought through three
scoreless periods, overtime and a shootout. He finished with 23 saves
and went to 5-6-2 on the season.
Our hats
go off to the Bruins defense, which limited the Panthers to just a single
shot in the second period, their lowest total in any period this season.
Weak Link: The Bruins threw 28 shots at Vokoun through the first two periods and couldn't manage to find the back of the net. They outshot the Panthers 19-1 in the second period alone and still found themselves in a scoreless tie when they headed into the locker room. When you get that many shots on goal and don't score — even against a goalie having as good of a night as Vokoun — something is wrong. As the Bruins grew increasingly frustrated, the Panthers' confidence flourished because they were able to hang in there for so long, despite the lopsided box score.
The Black and Gold had seemed to rid themselves of the offensive ineptitude that plagued them throughout much of this early season, and now, they can't afford to regress. Forwards David Krejci (who was called out by head coach Claude Julien prior to the game for his lack of production this season) and Michael Ryder (three goals) need to find a way to sustain this offense until Milan Lucic and Marc Savard return to action.
Key Moment: The Bruins had plenty of scoring chances in this one, and one of the best came with less than two minutes remaining in regulation. Ryder sent a 46-foot slap shot right at Vokoun's chest, failing to put Boston on top and send the Panthers packing.
Similarly, the Panthers had a perfect scoring opportunity soon after that, but Michael Frolik sent a bullet off the post from 38 feet.
What's Next: On Saturday, the B's travel to Pittsburgh to take on the defending Stanley Cup champion Penguins for the second time this week. On Tuesday, Thomas shut out the Pens 3-0, marking the first time this season the B's won consecutive games.
The Boston defense proved brilliant in the win, holding Pittsburgh to just two shots in the first period and holding Sidney Crosby to a measly two shots. As of Thursday's action, Crosby had not scored in five games.
The Penguins have been ravaged by injuries this season and lost another key component when Brooks Orpik went down in the first period of Tuesday's game. After Thursday's loss to the Devils, they fell out of first place inthe division, and they're bound to keep falling unless the offense gets itself in order.
