BOSTON -- Tim Thomas has owned the Ottawa Senators over the course of his career, and he did it again Saturday night.
The Boston Bruins netminder continued his mastery - albeit barely - against the club's Northeast Division rival, scoring another 4-3 shootout victory despite giving up a weak goal late that sent the game to overtime.
Milan Michalek scored his second goal of the night with 19.3 seconds remaining in regulation to tie things up after the Senators had raced to a 2-0 first-period lead, then lost it when the Bruins scored three unanswered power-play goals.
Thomas was furious with himself with late goal, an uncharacteristically soft one, but he redeemed himself in the shootout, stopping four Ottawa shooters. Michael Ryder clinched the victory on Boston's fourth attempt.
"It was a huge letdown for the team," said Thomas, who entered the game with a 13-5-2 record, 2.12 goals-against average and .934 save percentage against the Senators. That stellar history also includes a 4-3 shootout victory on Oct. 24 in which the Senators also coughed up a two-goal lead, this time in the final 90 seconds, and then lost to Thomas in a shootout.
"I didn't just let the team down. I let myself down. But then to be able to salvage and at least leave there on a positive feeling, it's all you can ask for.
"If you're going to let a bad goal in with 10 seconds left, if you can win the shootout, that's the best you can ask for."
Even extending his mastery over the Senators was no blessing, he said.
"I don't care who it was," said Thomas, who faced 22 shots. "I wasn't blessed with 10 seconds or whatever left."
David Krejci, Dennis Wideman, with just his second goal of the year, and Ryder scored goals in regulation for Boston.
Daniel Alfredsson recorded Ottawa's other goal.
Senators coach Cory Clouston said it was some consolation that the Senators escaped with a point, but that can't mask their inconsistent performance overall.
"I thought we got off to a real good start, almost too good too soon and then we got very lethargic in the middle frame," said Clouston. "I thought the last part of the second, and a good portion of the third, we were OK, but we didn't do enough good things. We just didn't play our game consistently enough.
"Any point is very important, but if you look at the process, we do have to play better."
He was particularly upset that his team allowed three power-play goals.
"You can't get outworked on special teams," he said.
Michalek said he was just trying to get the puck on net when he scored the tying goal. If there was a rebound, he would have been happy. So he was surprised when it went it. But it wasn't enough.
"I think one point is good, but we didn't do a good job on the (penalty kill) and we have to get better at that," he said. "And we had a 2-0 lead and we didn't play good in the second period. They scored two goals."
The Senators played the first period as well as they could and came out of it with a 2-0 lead.
With a shot to the stick side from the high slot, Alfredsson made Thomas look as if he should have still been sitting as a backup.
Then, not even three minutes later, Michalek got his first with Marc Savard off for high-sticking.
Considering that those goals were scored on only five shots, it looked as if Julien might have picked the wrong goalie.
But the Bruins took it to the Senators in the second period, and were helped by three Ottawa penalties, two of which proved costly.
When Nick Foligno went off just 41 seconds into the period for tripping, it took Krejci just 18 seconds to score on Senators goalie Brian Elliott, who finished with 30 saves.
Then, with Chris Kelly off for hooking, Ryder scored with only 16 seconds left in the penalty.
Ottawa Citizen
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