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Thomas, Wheeler help Bruins edge Canadiens in shootout

Nov 23, 2008 - 5:22 AM MONTREAL (Ticker) -- Tim Thomas stopped all three attempts he faced in the shootout to make rookie Blake Wheeler's first-round goal stand up as the streaking Boston Bruins recorded a 3-2 triumph over the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday in a battle of "Original Six" rivals.

Milan Lucic and rookie defenseman Matt Hunsick tallied in regulation and Thomas turned aside 33 shots for Boston, which improved to 12-1-1 in its last 14 games.

After dropping 12 consecutive regular-season contests to the Canadiens, the Bruins have won each of the last two meetings between the Northeast Division foes.

Tom Kostopoulos recorded a goal and an assist, Andrei Kostitsyn also tallied and Carey Price made 25 saves for Montreal, which retired Hall of Famer Patrick Roy's No. 33 prior to the game.

"I was very honored to be able to say I was one of the ones beside Patrick when the banner went up. It was pretty special," Price said. "We would've liked to get the win, but Boston's playing well. They're on a roll right now, and we battled with them to the end."

Although not aesthetically pleasing, Wheeler recorded the lone goal in the shootout. The 22-year-old lost control of the puck while skating in on Price, but the puck slid under the netminder's left pad and into the net to give Boston the early advantage.

"(Wheeler) kind of gave me the 'no-move' move," Price said. "He kind of lost the puck and psyched me - and him - out."

Thomas denied Alexei Kovalev with a glove save, stopped defenseman Andrei Markov on Montreal's second attempt and used his glove again to deny captain Saku Koivu's backhander to seal the win.

"We've had at least a couple of shootouts here in my mind, and it was nice to come out on top of one," Thomas said. "I've seen Saku score on that last shot, and he's the one walking off the ice with his arms raised and all happy. ... I was happy to be the one with my arms raised and happy today."

Thomas improved to 9-2-3 with the win.

"How in the (heck) is he not on the All-Star ballot, that's all I've got to say. It's embarrassing, isn't it?" Boston's Shawn Thornton said. "Isn't he leading the league in goals-against and save percentage?

"He's been a warrior for us all year. Timmy's literally stolen us games. I think people should be voting for him."

Kostopoulos leveled the contest at 2-2 with 3:05 remaining in the third period.

Defenseman Patrice Brisebois wristed a shot that caromed off Thomas and popped straight into the air. Kostopoulos was able to swat it into the net for his second goal of the season.

"That was just a lucky play, a good heads-up play by Brisebois and (Robert) Lang, and it was a lucky bounce," Kostopoulos said. "Their defense was doing a good job blocking shots all night, and Brisebois played it off to the side of the net."

"I knew the shot was going wide, then I saw the stick out there and I think I caught up with the puck when it was about halfway in the air," Thomas said. "Even the first goal went off a helmet and shaft and right onto Kostitsyn's stick. That's happened enough times to us in this building, so shrug it off and go, 'Oh well, we're going to find a way to come out with a win anyways.'"

With 9:41 remaining in the third, David Krejci fed Hunsick in the slot, and the blue-liner wristed the puck past Price to put Boston ahead, 2-1.

Kostitsyn opened the scoring 91 seconds into the second period, wristing a loose puck by Thomas. But Lucic forged a tie with 8:49 remaining in the session, redirecting a centering pass from Kessel past Price for his sixth goal of the season - and third against the Canadiens in 11 career games.

"A good thing about us is that our mind set is that we're going to take everything one game at a time," Lucic said. "We don't want to look too far ahead, like we did in the past. That mind set has helped us thus far and given us success."

"I think over the last 10 days, we worked on our defense," Montreal coach Guy Carbonneau said. "There was some weakness. Now that that's strong, our offense is weak. Maybe we should go back to opening up, but I think it's just a question of time. We have too much talent to just score one or two goals a game."