After win, he's not masking satisfaction
WILMINGTON - In the second period of Saturday night's game, it was bad enough that Montreal forward Tomas Plekanec stepped out of the box after serving a tripping penalty, took a pass in stride from penalty killer Steve Begin, and tucked a breakaway goal behind Bruins goalie Tim Thomas.
But as Thomas hit the deck facefirst to block Plekanec's shot, he thudded his mask into the ice, breaking his chin strap.
After the goal and again during a TV timeout, Thomas went to the bench, hopeful equipment manager Mark Dumas could provide a temporary fix. But when they couldn't repair the strap, Thomas had to play the rest of the period with his chin cup between his teeth to keep it in place, muffling his communication with his defensemen.
"Man on you, man on you," a smiling Thomas demonstrated yesterday, sticking his hand between his teeth to mimic his garbled commands. "Time, time."
Despite the equipment malfunction (the mask was repaired during second intermission), Thomas didn't allow it to become a distraction. He kept his net clear for the rest of the second, keeping it a 2-1 match into the third period. In the final frame, Thomas couldn't do anything about defenseman Francis Bouillon's shot that deflected in off the stick of Shane Hnidy, nor could he do anything about the bang-bang play that resulted in winger Christopher Higgins's tying goal at 15:56.
Instead, he relied on his teammates to rally.
"It felt incredible," Thomas said of the comeback, the Bruins pulling out a 5-4 victory. "Especially when you get four goals scored on you. I was excited for the whole team to win, but I was proud of the guys for coming up so big."
Entering tonight's Game 7, Thomas boasts a 2.27 goals-against average and a .925 save percentage. At the other end, Carey Price carries a 2.43 GAA and a .914 save percentage. After giving up only five goals over the first four games, Price has allowed 10 scores in his last two starts.
"I don't care what's happened in the last two games," said coach Claude Julien. "This kid [Price] bounces back. We just have to continue doing what we have to do. That's to continue getting good goaltending in our end, because it's been just as good [on the other side]."
Power of self-motivation
Throughout the series, Julien hasn't had to smash sticks and rally the troops before games or during intermissions.
"These guys deserve a lot of credit, and they're going to get it from me," Julien said. "On that part of it, I think they've been absolutely great. They haven't needed the rah-rah from their coach. I've just given them the information I think they need going into the game, precautions on certain things, what we need to do to succeed. The rest of it? They've really grown into it."
Instead of riding their emotions, the Bruins have been business-like in their approach since falling behind in the series, 3-1. And that shouldn't change headed into tonight.
"I think every team is different with their needs," Andrew Ference said. "I think rah-rah would almost be a detriment to us. When we get pretty emotional and overly excited, we usually get away from our game and it usually hurts us.
"I think the good thing that we've done when we have been down is kept it calm and stuck with the way we've played good hockey, which is under control. As soon as we get too excited, we start running around, and that's usually when the other team scores."
Bergeron likely out
Patrice Bergeron was one of five Bruins (Andrew Alberts, Jeremy Reich, Alex Auld, and Manny Fernandez were the others) to practice yesterday at Ristuccia Arena, with the rest of the players working out on stationary bikes. Even if Bergeron spoke with his doctors today, he didn't think he'd receive clearance. Julien, however, said he would have no problems with putting Bergeron back into the lineup if he were cleared. "He doesn't seem hesitant," Julien said of Bergeron's performance in practice. "He really looks good out there. I can tell you that much. He looks good. He's been skating now for a good month at a hard pace. So yeah, not having played in a real game situation, there might be some little issues here and there. But with the quality of player he is, there's no way you can keep a guy like that out. Wouldn't even consider it."
A drop in efficiency
In Saturday night's first period, captain Saku Koivu won all five of the draws he took, leading the Canadiens to a 13-3 advantage in the faceoff circle after the first 20 minutes. "It was pathetic when you're [at that percentage] on faceoffs," Julien said. "But the other part of it was we won the real important faceoffs. As much as we weren't good on the faceoffs, the ones we had to win, we did." The Bruins concluded the night with 29 wins and 41 losses . . . Tonight, the Bell Centre crowd should be at its loudest, but Julien doesn't think it will affect his players. "Are the fans going to be any louder than they have been? They were loud already," Julien said. "I don't know how much louder it can get. No matter what, I think the fact that we've been through it, I don't think it's going to faze our guys anymore. That part of the equation, I don't think, is going to faze our hockey club. We're in there to do a job. The last time we were in there, we won a game. Just have to go in there with the same focus."
