Thomas stops 29 in second straight shutout
Tim Thomas deflected the praise as easily as almost every shot he's faced his season.
''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.''
Thomas made 29 saves for his second straight shutout and third of the season, improving to 6-0 in the Boston Bruins' 4-0 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Saturday night.
Thomas has 20 career NHL shutouts, five against the Senators.
David Krejci, Tyler Seguin, Milan Lucic and Jordan Caron scored to help the Bruins raise their record to 6-2-0. Brian Elliott made 21 saves for Ottawa.
''We had our chances early and didn't capitalize,'' Senators coach Cory Clouston said. ''We had six or seven good chances in the first period ... those were the momentum breakers. They capitalized on our mistakes. For the most part up to the first 35 minutes I thought we played a real solid game.''
On Thursday night in Boston, Thomas beat Toronto 2-0.
Boston opened the scoring early in the first period when Krejci took advantage of an Ottawa turnover. Chris Phillips' attempt to clear the puck caught Mike Fisher's stick, and Krejci caught Elliott off guard.
Ottawa appeared to tie it midway through the second on a goal by Daniel Alfredsson, but it was called back after it was ruled Fisher interfered with Thomas in the crease.
''I don't know if it was a turning point,'' Thomas said. ''I think we would have won anyways in my mind. It was a good call.''
The Bruins led 3-0 after two periods.
Seguin, with his third of the season, took a great cross-ice pass from Mark Recchi and caught Elliott moving side-to-side to beat him shortside on the power play at 13:55.
Ottawa looked to be asleep toward the end of the period, surrendering two breakaways in succession. Elliott stopped Nathan Horton's attempt, but Lucic made scored moments later.
''They're a good team, they stuck with their game plan when they got up a couple goals,'' Clouston said. ''We got off ours a little bit and that falls right into their hands.''
Caron then scored on a breakaway in the third.
''We played well in the first 10 minutes and then they took control of the last 10,'' Bruins coach Claude Julien said. ''The third was our best and everyone contributed.''
