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Bruins' offense breaks out in win over Maple Leafs

Nov 16, 2007 - 4:09 AM By Mike Petraglia PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

BOSTON (Ticker) -- The Boston Bruins finally found their offense and ruined another homecoming for Andrew Raycroft.

Peter Schaefer scored two third-period goals from in close and Brandon Bochenski added two assists as the Bruins skated past the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-2, on Thursday.

Tim Thomas stopped 34 shots to improve to 7-4-2 for Boston, which matched its biggest margin of victory this season. The total of five goals is second only to its eight-goal outburst on October 13 at Los Angeles.

"We've been struggling scoring goals and Timmy Thomas has been playing great for us all year, just like he did again tonight, so it was nice to help him out a little bit," Schaefer said. "We're just going to have to keep working hard and get those cheesy goals."

"It was actually one of my more uncomfortable feelings going into a game, but that happens every once in a while," Thomas said. "But if you can bear down and fight through it and come out with the results we had, you're very happy."

Raycroft, who was Boston's fifth-round pick in the 1998 draft, lost for the fourth time in seven tries against his former team since being traded to Toronto for current Bruins backup Tuukka Rask in June 2006.

"It's obviously not the start we wanted or needed, and it lingered over us most of the game," Raycroft said. "Tonight, the puck was bouncing all over and they seemed to get a couple of good breaks."

The Bruins, who have struggled all season to score, broke out with a rare two-goal effort in the opening period.

Just 19 seconds into the game, Marc Savard - who was stationed in the slot - took a pass from along the left wing boards by Glen Murray and fired a slap shot that beat Raycroft to the stick side.

It was Savard's fourth tally of the season.

"That first shift of the game was so important," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "Savvy was so good."

"Everything starts with the first minute, first shift actually," Toronto defenseman Tomas Kaberle said. "We weren't ready and weren't prepared to do the job tonight, and that's why we lost."

The Maple Leafs used their first power play of the night to tie the game just over 11 minutes into the first period.

Kaberle's shot was deflected, bounding over the net before coming back in front of Thomas. Kyle Wellwood collected the loose puck and backhanded a shot past the netminder for his third goal.

"I thought in this game, because it wasn't a wide-open game by any means, if we could move the puck a little more effectively and hang on to it, I liked some of the things we did offensively, except that Thomas was real good," Toronto coach Paul Maurice said.

"I thought we just beat the puck to death tonight in so many different areas. I thought both teams did. I didn't think they handled it much better. I thought their transition game was as bad as ours."

Only 32 seconds later, Marco Sturm took the Bruins' team lead in scoring when he beat Raycroft with a shot from in front for his eighth tally and a 2-1 lead.

"It was huge," Thomas said. "When your team can score 30 seconds after you let in a goal, it lets you settle down and take it easy."

"We didn't play well, that's for sure," Toronto center Matt Stajan said. "We didn't play a full 60 minutes. They scored on their chances. We had a few miscues on their goals, and it just wasn't acceptable. We just weren't good enough. We've got to play better than that, there's no doubt about it."

The Bruins doubled their advantage midway through the second, when Glen Metropolit controlled a loose puck to the left of Raycroft and beat the goalie at 10:16 for his third of the season.

Boston's first two-goal lead since November 1 lasted less than two minutes, however, as Alexei Ponikarovsky's redirection of captain Mats Sundin's pass trickled past Thomas with 8:03 left in the middle session for his seventh goal of the season, halving Toronto's deficit.

The Bruins nearly restored their two-goal lead just before the second intermission, but Murray - who has not scored in 13 games dating to October 12 - fanned on a pass from Savard with a vacant net in front of him in the final minute of the period.

"No doubt in my mind (Murray) deserves a goal," Julien said of Murray's scoring drought. "Somehow, it eludes him. It's not from lack of trying or lack of work. (Hopefully), he gets a break."

Schaefer - who also had an assist - took over in the third, netting his second of the campaign at 2:11 and completing his eighth career two-goal game at 5:35 to provide the final margin.