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Bruins blank Flyers in first meeting since playoffs

Dec 2, 2010 - 3:59 AM Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - Tim Thomas made 41 stops for his fifth shutout of the season and remained perfect on the road, as the Boston Bruins got some revenge on the Philadelphia Flyers with a 3-0 win at Wells Fargo Center.

The last time these teams faced each other was in last season's Eastern Conference Semifinals, which saw the Flyers become just the third team in NHL history to rally from a 3-0 series deficit by winning the last four games.

Patrice Bergeron, Tyler Seguin and Milan Lucic each had a goal for the Bruins, who had dropped four of five coming into the contest. Thomas ran his record on the road this season to 9-0-0.

"I watch them on TV and even last year in the playoffs and they do some pretty funny stuff," said Thomas. It isn't just shooting from the outside and crashing the net, they do a little bit of everything so I was trying to be ready for anything."

Sergei Bobrovsky allowed two goals on 31 shots for the Flyers, who have lost three straight for the first time since a three-game slump from October 14-21.

"It's not like we played really bad tonight but I think we can be better," said Flyers forward Claude Giroux. "It's going to be a big weekend for us this weekend."

The Bruins scored twice in the first period despite being outshot, 15-10.

The first goal came at the 5:40 mark with Boston on the man advantage. Bobrovsky made a nice stop on a Lucic shot from down low and the puck was sitting at the goalmouth. A Flyer attempted to clear the puck up the middle, but Bergeron grabbed it and shot it home with the goaltender still on the ice.

Seguin made it a 2-0 game with his fifth goal of the season with 4:48 left in the first. Brad Marchand received the puck while stationary at the left point and hit a skating Michael Ryder, who then slid the puck over to Seguin in the low slot where he roofed it over Bobrovsky.

"I'm not sure what our record is offhand when we score the first goal but I know it's pretty good," said Seguin. "That's one of the main things we've been trying to change the last couple games, is not doing that. Tonight we did that."

Thomas made 16 saves in the second period, including a penalty shot stop on Scott Hartnell with 2:40 left as he made a glove stop to keep the Flyers scoreless.

The Flyers kept coming at the Bruins in the third, but were unable to solve Thomas and Lucic's empty-net goal with under two minutes to play sealed the win.

Game Notes

Philadelphia hosts New Jersey on Saturday...Boston returns home to face Tampa Bay on Thursday...Boston has won eight of the last 10 regular-season games in Philly...It was the 22nd shutout of Thomas' career...Boston went 1-for-2 on the power play while Philly was 0-for-4.