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Thomas, Bruins beat Capitals in shootout

Nov 16, 2006 - 3:33 AM WASHINGTON (Ticker) -- Patrice Bergeron and the Boston Bruins did something they hadn't done all season.

Bergeron scored the only goal in the shootout and Tim Thomas made it stand as the Bruins posted a 3-2 victory over the Washington Capitals to earn their first winning streak of 2006-07.

Rookie Phil Kessel and defenseman Brad Stuart added first-period goals for Boston, which has won four of its last five vs. Washington. The victory also gave the Bruins back-to-back wins as they were coming off Saturday's 4-3 triumph over Ottawa that snapped a two-game losing streak.

"It was pretty big," Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara said. "Obviously any time you can win a game the way we did, in a shootout, it is pretty exciting. The most important thing is, we earned two points."

In the shootout, Bergeron skated directly in and slipped a shot between the pads of Olaf Kolzig. Thomas then tipped away Matt Pettinger's shot with his pad as the Bruins won their first shootout in three chances this season.

"In overtime I thought we had a lot of chances, but to win in the shootout was great," Bergeron said.

"I thought he would go short-side and he just got time to open up," Kolzig said. "It's always disappointing to play that well as a team and come out with just one point. We played real hard and had a ton of chances, but Thomas played well."

Thomas and Kolzig each stopped 33 shots.

"(Thomas) made some big saves for us through the game," Chara said. "Basically, he stood up really great in the end. He made three great saves."

"I thought that Timmy Thomas had his best game today," Bruins coach Dave Lewis added. "He stopped some pretty good shooters in the shootout."

Pettinger scored a shorthanded goal to bring Washington within 2-1 with four minutes left in the first period. Dainius Zubrus tallied with a man advantage to tie the game at 2-2 with just under eight minutes to go in the second session.

It was Zubrus' team-leading fifth power-play goal of the season.

"The second period wasn't the best period we've ever played, and we got a lot of penalties," Thomas said. "We were able to regroup and come back and play a solid third period and ultimately get out of here with two points."

Washington is now 0-4 in shootouts this season

"It's unproductive for us to sit in misery here and think it's never going to go our way (in shootouts)," Capitals coach Glen Hanlon said. "We have lots of firepower. We'll work on these things."