Bruins rout Ducks to maintain control in East

After a difficult road trip, the Boston Bruins are clearly glad to be back at home.  Showing some signs of vulnerability with a 1-4 mark during the recent stretch of away games, the Bruins hoped that a return to Boston’s TD BankNorth Garden would be the cure for their woes.  It appears to have done the trick, as Boston followed up Tuesday’s 6-1 rout of Florida with a 6-0 destruction of Anaheim on Thursday night. 

On a night where the other top teams in the Eastern Conference also posted victories, the win over the Ducks allowed the Bruins to maintain their points advantage with a 9 point lead over second place Washington and an eleven point lead over third place New Jersey.   Tim Thomas was impenetrable in goal, stopping 35 shots for his fourth shutout of the season.  It was Thomas’ 11^th career shutout, and he’s now won two straight after losing three of his previous four starts. 

Michael Ryder also starred for Boston in his second game back in the lineup following facial surgery.  Ryder scored a goal and earned two assists, and he had two goals in Tuesday’s blowout win of Florida.  The Bruins are 17-0-1 this year when Ryder scores a goal this season.  Bruins coach Claude Julien praised Ryder in his post game comments:

"He's a threat whenever he's out there. We talked about putting some emotion in our game when we were sliding, putting some jam and grit into it, and it allowed us to score some goals."

Bruins forward David Krejci suggested that the team felt a need to put the disappointing road trip behind them and get back to their winning form at home:

"We just came back here and told ourselves we've got to go back to the way we played before. We got six goals last game, and six goals this game. Things are going our way right now."

Boston has four more games remaining in this home stand, but the opposition will get tougher over the weekend.  The second place Washington Capitals will invade the TD BankNorth Garden on Saturday, with the fourth place Philadelphia Flyers coming to town on Tuesday.  Phoenix and Chicago will finish off the home stand on Thursday and next Saturday.  Anaheim will play at Dallas on Saturday and Chicago on Saturday before returning to the Honda Center for a rematch with the Stars next Friday.