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Thomas, Ryder lead Bruins over Canucks

Oct 29, 2008 - 5:44 AM VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Ticker) -- A shortage of offense by the Boston Bruins has been negated by Tim Thomas' brilliance.

Thomas sparkled in a low-scoring effort yet again, stopping all 31 shots he faced to notch his second consecutive shutout as the Bruins held on for a 1-0 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday.

The 34-year-old goaltender turned aside 11 shots in the first, seven in the second and 13 in the third en route to his second shutout of the season and ninth career.

He made 27 saves in a 1-0 overtime victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday. Thomas hasn't allowed a goal in 132 minutes, 14 seconds.

"Maybe it was a good thing that I played (Monday), because you don't have the shakiness you have sometimes when you don't play in a while," Thomas said. "Last night I didn't get a whole lot of shots in the beginning because I hadn't played in a few days. But tonight I got chances right off the bat. It was easier to be into the game because it kind of feels like you've played one game."

Boston coach Claude Julien was pleased with the team's performance.

"It's just a great effort by obviously our goaltender again tonight," Julien said. "At the same time, I can't give enough credit to our fourth line who's allowed us to keep our team as fresh as we could for as long as we could.

"These last two nights, I don't think we could have ever survived these two games the way these teams play with a short bench. There are a lot of guys who deserve credit for that and I thought as a team, we played a good road game."

A first-period goal by Michael Ryder was all Thomas needed to give the Bruins their first three-game win streak of the season.

"It's pretty intense at the end there when you're up by one goal, but we'll take it," Ryder said. "We'll take the shutout. We try and concentrate on defense and it's paying off."

Ryder converted passes from Marco Sturm and Marc Savard with 9:44 left in the first and beat captain Roberto Luongo, who made 29 saves for the Canucks.

On a delayed penalty, Savard threw a centering pass that Sturm tipped on net. The initial shot was stopped, but the rebound came right out to the slot where Ryder skated in and snapped a wrister under Luongo's right arm for his second goal of the season.

Ryder was credited with the game-winning goal, but praised Thomas for his efforts.

"He's definitely playing really well for us right now," Ryder said. "He's making the big key saves when we need it and keeping us in it. We're stepping up behind him. We're trying to keep it tight around the net and not give up too many chances around there. He makes the first save and we just try and clear the rebounds."

Winners of their previous two contests at home, the Canucks fell behind on the opening goal for the first time this season at General Motors Place.

"It was a hard fought game," Luongo said. "There wasn't a lot of room out there. We had our chances, we just couldn't bury it tonight. Their goalie played a good game and made some huge saves."

Vancouver outshot Boston, 31-30, overall and by a 13-9 margin in the third, but dropped their fourth in five games.

"You've got to give credit to their goaltender," Canucks coach Alain Vigneault said. "Ours was very good too, but their goaltender played a phenomenal game. Against a team like that, you've got to get to them early so that they have to open up a little bit.

"We had some chances in the first chances. We had some quality chances and he shut us down. In the second, there was just no room on the ice in the neutral zone. They were doing a great job and we couldn't get anything going."