Tim Thomas

◄ Back

Next ►

Picture 1 of 20

The Washington Capitals move on to the second round with a 2-1 overtime victory over the Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins.

“Age and treachery always wins out over youth and enthusiasm” is an old adage that I’ve heard for many years. Well evidently Braden Holtby hasn’t heard that one because the rookie backstop just dispatched the defending Vezina Trophy winner and Conn Smythe winner Tim Thomas, and his Bruins to an early off season.  Holtby becomes  the third rookie Caps goalie, along with Semyon Varlamov (2009) and Michal Neuvirth (2011), in four seasons to lead the team to a Stanley Cup series win.

The B’s have been used to high pressure game 7′s lately as they needed to win three of them last year enroute to the Cup. Thomas also had his game seven shutout streak broken at 139:03 that dated back to the last 7:40 of game 7 with Montreal in the 2011 and ECQ and complete game shutouts vs Tampa Bay in the Conference Finals and vs Vancouver in the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals.    

The game-winner came at 2:57 of the fourth frame when Mike Knuble and Joel Ward rushed into the offensive zone on a 2 on 1 break and Knuble took a shot on net that Thomas initially stopped. The rebound came right out to Ward who tapped it passed Thomas on the short side for his first goal since Feb 24th.

Matt Hendricks got the Caps on the board at 11:23 of the first period when he deflected a John Carlson shot from the right wing. Tyler Seguin evened the score at one a piece when Johnny Boychuck sent a slapper from inside the right circle that trickled through Holtby’s pads and died inside the crease. Seguin poked it home for the score.

The most touching moment of the night came after the game when Thomas finished up the handshake line and skated over towards his kids, clad in daddy’s jersey and tears rolling down their cheeks, where he put a big smile on his face just to let them know everything was ok.

As the season concludes, the big question will be if Thomas returns for the final year of his contract or not. Only time tell, see ya in October when we’ll start this all over again.

Copyright The Goalie Magazine - InGoalMag.com

Braden Holtby

◄ Back

Next ►

Picture 1 of 27

The Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruins are one game away from a first round elimination after a 4-3 loss to the Washington Capitals Saturday afternoon.

A late third period powerplay goal from Troy Brouwer proved to be the game winner. Washington went on the man advantage when Benoit Pouliot was called for slashing at 17:10. A minute and twenty three seconds later Brouwer, unopposed on the right wing, sent a wrister from the top of the circle that beat Thomas glove side. This was the fourth time in the five game series that the game-winning goal was scored in the final two minutes of play.

After a scoreless first period, the Capitals went up 2-0 on tallies from Alex Semin and Jay Beagle in the second  before the momentum started to swing Boston’s way late in the frame when a Dennis Seidenberg one-timer from the right circle found it’s way past Holtby. Twenty eight seconds later Brad Marchand knotted the game at 2 a piece when he tapped home a rebound from a Johnny Boychuck  shot between Holtby’s pads.

Ex Bruin Mike Knuble picked up his first goal of the series when Thomas steered the rebound from a 50ft Joel Ward shot on the right side to a waiting Knuble in the left slot who knocked it home past a diving Thomas.

Boychuck let loose his trademark “Johnny Rocket”, a one-timer from high in the left slot that Holtby was unable to catch up too for Boston’s third and final score to tie the game at 3.  

Holtby notched his third victory of the playoffs with 34 saves while Thomas stopped 28.

The series now moves to Washington for game 6 Sunday afternoon.

Note: Goaltender Michal Neuvirth rejoined the Capitals and Dany Sabourin has been assigned to the AHL Hershey Bears.

Copyright The Goalie Magazine - InGoalMag.com

Braden Holtby

◄ Back

Next ►

Picture 1 of 24

The Washington Capitals take down the Boston Bruins in game 2 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals with a marathon 2-1 win in double overtime to even the series at one game a piece.

Braden Holtby turned in a 43 save effort Saturday afternoon and continued to bewilder the Boston offense  enroute to his first playoff win. In game 1 the question was who is this Holtby kid? By the middle of game 2 the capacity crowd of 17,565 figured out he was the real deal and began chanting Holt-by, Holt-by-usually reserved for any long time Boston sports nemesis-trying to rattle his cage and get under his skin. The young backstop never wavered and remained focused throughout all 5 periods.

Boston’s only tally came at 12:13 of the third frame when Holtby and Benoit Pouliot both raced raced after a rebound in front of the net. Pouliot got there first and beat Holtby’s pokecheck rolling the puck past the goaltender and flipping over the top of him in the process.

Holtby said after the game about the Pouliot hit, “I got bumped a little bit. When I’m going to go out and pokecheck like that I know I’m going to get hit once in a while. I tried to shake it off and it wasn’t that bad.” 

Tim Thomas had his shutout streak halted at 161:41 when Troy Brouwer tapped the puck in the crease past Thomas,on all fours, and defenseman Greg Zanon for the Capitals first lead of the series.

The Capitals put the game away at 2:56 of the second overtime when Marcus Johansson sent a pass from behind the net to Niklas Backstrom at left faceoff circle who sailed a wrister past Thomas’ blocker for the game winner.

The best-of-seven series now moves to Washington for games 3 and 4 on Monday and Thursday.

Copyright The Goalie Magazine - InGoalMag.com

Tim Thomas

◄ Back

Next ►

Picture 1 of 29

Boston began it’s defence of the Stanley Cup with a 1-0 overtime victory over the Washington Capitals in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals.

On one end of the rink stood the grisled veteren and current Staney Cup Champion, Con Smythe and Vezina Trophy winner Tim Thomas. On the other end was 21 year old Braden Holtby with just 21 NHL games under his belt making his first playoff appearance.  Holtby was next in line after the current tandem of Vokoun (groin) and Neuvirth (left  leg)  went down with injuries in the final weeks of the season.

Holtby’s only miscue of the night came at the 1:18 mark in overtime when Chris Kelly raced up the left wing and launched a rocket from the top of the circle that blew past his glove and into the cage.

The first two periods Holtby stood his ground and didn’t give an inch as most of the play was in the Washington end. Boston rattled off 9 shots in the first and a commanding 17 in the second to the Capitals 7 over the same time frame. At one point Boston had a 6 minute man advantage but the third string netminder had an answer for every offering.

The Capitals came out with renewed energy in the third period and tried to help Thomas break in his new Warrior pads by out shooting the B’s 9 to 3. The Caps best opportunity came early in the third on the powerplay when Alex Ovechkin saw an opening and fired a snap shot from inside the right circle that Thomas, moving left to right, caught up to it with a nice right pad save to end the bid.

After his standout performance, praise for Holtby came from both side of the ice.

 “I thought he played very well,” says Thomas of the Caps rookie netminder. “I didn’t see a lot of holes tonight. He worked very hard. I’m hoping he expended a lot of energy and wore himself out a little bit, because I hope he doesn’t play that good every game. I thought he did a very good job.”

“I thought Holts was awesome,” says Caps center Brooks Laich. “His first NHL postseason game and I thought he was tremendous for us.”

“The next game will be different,” Ovechkin said. “We know we can play against them. Holtby played a hell of a game. He was nervous but once he made the first save he calmed down.”

The win for Thomas was his sixth career playoff shutout and his second consecutive post-season shutout, as he recorded a 4-0 win on June 15, 2011 in game seven of the Stanley Cup Final. He now carries a playoff shutout streak of 123:44 with his last playoff goal allowed a Maxim Lapierre goal at 17:34 of the third period on June 13, 2011 vs Vancouver in Boston.

Copyright The Goalie Magazine - InGoalMag.com

Brent Johnson

◄ Back

Next ►

Picture 1 of 31

In what could be considered an inconsequential game with both teams locked in the playoffs, Pittsburgh and Boston gave their starters a night off and sent out backups Brent Johnson and Marty Turco to do battle as Pittsburgh defeated Boston 5-3 Tuesday night.

Johnson’s Penguins staked him to an early 2-0 lead with goals from Sidney Crosby,  his 5th in 12 games since returning from concussion-like symptoms and Paul Martin.

Benoit Pouliot cut the lead to 2-1 late in the first period when he found a seam on the short side of Johnson and dropped a backhander into the back of the net. Eighteen seconds into the next frame David Krejci skated in front of Johnson then dropped a no look pass to to Milan Lucic coming up behind him on left wing that caught a diving Johnson out of postion to tie the game at 2 a piece.

The Penguins, with a 2 man advantage, took a 3-2 lead at 18:11 when James Neal grabbed a rebound from a Chris Kunitz shot and snapped it top shelf glove side past Turco. Eight seconds later, and still with a man advantage, Crosby added his 7 tally of the season tipping a Kris Letang pass into a wide open net to extend the lead to 4-2.

Final Period goals by Rich Peverly (Bos) and Arron Ashom (Pit) rounded out the scoring.

Brent Johnson (5-7-2) finished the night with 27 saves for his 5th win of the season

Turco (2-2-0), in what was probably his last start in a Bruins sweater, stopped 22 of 27 shots.

 With Tuukka Rask still nursing a groin injury, Anton Khudobin has been called up from Providence to take over Turco’s spot when the playoffs start. In 44 games with the P-Bruins “doby” posted a 21-19-3 record with 2 shutouts.

Copyright The Goalie Magazine - InGoalMag.com

Michal Neuvirth

◄ Back

Next ►

Picture 1 of 26

A win for the Bruins on Thursday night would have secured a playoff birth and may have given Tim Thomas a little rest for the final week of the regular season, but the Black and Gold let this one slip away as Washington comes out on top, 3-2 in a shootout.

Thomas faced only 9 shots on goal through the first two periods but Washington came out firing for the third with 11 shots, connecting on two.

Former Bruins defenseman Dennis Wideman got the Caps on the board first at 12:01 when he sent 20ft wrister past a screened Thomas. Less than 2 minutes later Alex Ovechkin and Marcus Johansson hooked up a 2 on 1 against Zdeno Chara where Ovechkin, skating down the left side, dropped a perfect pass to Johansson who sent it to the back of the cage, breaking his stick in two in the process.

 Michal Neuvirth, (0-2) vs the Bruins, looked to be cruising towards a easy shutout after replacing Tomas Vokoun late in the first frame. But with just over 3 minutes to go, things began to unravel as David Kejci and Andrew Ference both found the back of the net knotting the game at two a piece and sending it into overtime.

The game was still tied after the overtime period so it was on to the shootout where Boston has excelled this season with an 8-2 record.  

After a Neuvirth stop on David Krejci, Caps sniper Matt Hendricks put a fake on Thomas that put the Boston netminder on his backside leaving a wide open net for an easy score.

“I bit on his fake shot and then heal-picked,” said Thomas. “It was ugly. It can happen. It doesn’t happen that often, but it can happen.”

Boston’s next two shooters, Tyler Seguin and Patrice Bergeron put them up 2-1 before Washington’s Alex Semin made a incredible top-shelf backhand shot to tie it.

“I thought I’d won the game on Semin’s (shot),” said Thomas. “Because where he got the shot off from, 98 percent of the time the guy is going to miss the net from there.”

The fourth round saw Neuvirth stop Rich Peverley before Brooks Laich skated in for the game winner with a backhand shot of his own past Thomas’ glove in the top-right corner.

Thomas, who’s played 17 of the last 18 games, doesn’t appear to be too concerned about the possibilty of playing every game from here on out.

“I’m not even putting a thought into it, just playing,” he said. “I haven’t really thought about it one way or another, that’s how little of an issue it is as far as how I feel physically on the ice. I can play ’em all or we can split ’em up. It doesn’t really matter to me.

“I’m basically the employee. They tell me to play and I play That’s the way I approach it. I don’t want the coach’s job. It ain’t very fun.”

Copyright The Goalie Magazine - InGoalMag.com

Tim Thomas

◄ Back

Next ►

Picture 1 of 27

The Bruins goal as of late has been to give Tim Thomas (30-18-0) some rest and build a little consistency in their game as playoff time approaches. Tuesday night they accomplished both even though Thomas was on the ice for the full 60 as Boston rolled over Toronto in an 8-0 rout.

Thomas didn’t look like he broke a sweat all night as he only faced 13 shots total. It took 11 minutes into the game before he had to make the first of his 2 saves for that period. He faced 11 more shots, 5 in the second frame, 6 in the third.

This was his 5th shutout of the season, 31st of his career and his 4th career vs the Maple Leafs.

The other end ice was a different story with James Reimer (13-13-4), coming off 2 wins, being replaced after 4 goals on 9 shots in the first 13 minutes of the game.

His replacement, Jonas Gustavsson (17-16-3), didn’t fair much better. Although he held the Bruins scoreless the rest of the period, the B’s struck for 3 in the second and finished it off with one more in the third. 

“Goaltending falls right in line with the rest of our team,” Toronto coach Randy Carlyle said. “They didn’t play to the level that was required. … Your goaltender has to give you a chance, but your team has to help your goaltender and give him a chance.”

“I have never really seen anything like that (domination),” Maple Leafs goalie James Reimer said. “I’m not sure why one team has an advantage.”

The win for Boston completes 6-0 series sweep over the Maple Leafs. A first since the Leafs joined the Eastern Conference in 1998-99.

Note: In addition to the new pads, Thomas swapped out his Reebok stick for a Warrior.

Copyright The Goalie Magazine - InGoalMag.com

Ilya Bryzgalov

◄ Back

Next ►

Picture 1 of 28

Note: Today’s photo gallery is mainly all Flyers, Bryzgalov and Bobrovsky. My assigned shooting spots were at the Philadelphia end of the ice for this game.

With a little Irish luck on St. Patty’s Day Tim Thomas put a halt on Boston’s four game losing streak with a 3-2 shootout win over the visiting Philadelphia Flyers.

The Bruins jumped on Ilya Bryzgalov early in the first period  striking at 6:23 when Chris Kelly grabbed a rebound in front of the net and sent a wrister glove side past Bryzgalov.

Tyler Seguin notched his 25th goal at 17:07 when Patrice Bergeron dropped the puck on his stick from behind the net and Seguin tapped it past Bryzgalov on the short side.

Philly got on the board in the second frame when Matt Reid tipped a Danny Briere slapshot from the top of the right circle past Thomas.

Jakub Voracek closed out the scoring in regulation at 15:43 of the third when he tipped a Braydon Coburn shot from the blue line past a screened Thomas.

After a scoreless overtime period the shootout began with the first five snipers lighting the lamp, David Krejci, Tyler Seguin and Patrice Bergeron for Boston, Matt Reid and Claude Giroux for Philly. With a perfect 5-0 record in shootouts this season on the line, Thomas denied Danny Briere’s close in offering and sent the Garden crowd into the streets looking for green beer to celebrate. 

“After the second one, I kind of changed up what I do and I came way out to Briere – I think I went all the way out to the hash marks to try and give him a different look. I don’t know if that had anything to do with it at all, or I could’ve played it differently, as long as you make the save at the end. But I think it discouraged him from shooting.”

Thomas (30-18-4), playing in his 12th straight game, got the win stopping 27 of 29 shots.

Ilya Bryzgalov,  7-0-1 with a 1.10 GAA and .962 save percentage in his last eight games, took the loss stopping 31 0f 33 shots in regulation and overtime.

Copyright The Goalie Magazine - InGoalMag.com

Martin Brodeur

◄ Back

Next ►

Picture 1 of 23

Tim Thomas ( 27-13-0) picked up his 27th win and along the way helped his own cause with an assist, the first for a Boston goaltender this season, as the Bruins downed the Devils 4-3 in overtime.

Boston netted two first period goals (David Krejci & Tyler Seguin) against future Hall of Fame netminder Martin Brodeur and looked like they were going to run away with an easy victory.

But, as happened so many times this season, a lackluster second frame with no energy allowed New Jersey to climb back into the game with goals by Zach Parise, Patrik Elias and David Clarkson to put the Devils up 3-2.

Luckily for the B’s they had a very short memory and came out fired up for the final stanza. David Krejci rang up his second goal of the night when he batted a bouncing puck out of the air next to the right post. Brodeur got just piece of it with his blocker but not enough to stop it from going in.

The overtime period saw Krejci strike again, this time for the hat trick. Brodeur made the initial stop on a point blank shot from Zdeno Chara at the left post but the rebound settled on Krejci’s stick ten feet in front of the net where he launched a shot just under the crossbar for the game winner.

Brodeur (22-17-2) took the loss, New Jersey’s fourth in a row.

“I thought that we competed real well with them,” said Brodeur, who said Boston’s Zdeno Chara was guilty of a hand pass before the tying goal. “It’s been a struggle to play against the Bruins this year, it’s hard to hide that, but I thought that today was probably one of our best efforts, physically, that we’ve played against a big physical team.”

Copyright The Goalie Magazine - InGoalMag.com

Martin Jones

◄ Back

Next ►

Picture 1 of 20

Don’t adjust your monitors. Yes, those are pink uniforms and pink ice! Saturday night was the second annual Pink in the Rink game. The Monarchs Care Foundation, the charitable arm of the Monarchs, teamed up with Catholic Medical Center to raise awareness and donations to fight Breast Cancer. After the game, the pink jerseys were auctioned off.

The Northeast Division leading Connecticut Whale took the 4-1 victory behind a 26 save effort from Chad Johnson.

After a scoreless first period the Whale opened up the flood gates and poured in three goals past Martin Jones in a span of 1:31. Former UMass standout Casey Wellman got Connecticut on board first at 12:01 when he sent a wrister from the high slot past Jones glove side.

Nine seconds later, the Whale lit the lamp again as Jonathan Audy-Marchessault took a pass from Wellman at the top of the left circle and fired a one-timer past Jones.

Connecticut extended their lead to 3-0 when Wojtek Wolski skated through the crease and passed the puck back to center Kris Newbury who tipped it in for his 18th of the season.

The Monarchs cut the lead to 3-1 early in the third frame when Robbie Czarnik skated up center ice, split the Connecticut defenders and fired a shot the beat Johnson blocker side.

The Whale regained a 3 goal advantage less than a minute later when Andreas Thuresson redirected a Tim Erixon wrister past Jones.

 Martin Jones (13-13-1) took his 13th loss of the season stopping 36-of-40 shots.  

Copyright The Goalie Magazine - InGoalMag.com