Bruins drop heartbreaker to Devils

One minute and 26 seconds was all that separated the Boston Bruins from earning at least a point in Thursday night’s game against the New Jersey Devils at the TD Garden.

But it just wasn’t meant to be.

The game was deadlocked at 1-1 until Dainius Zubrus’ goal at 18:34 in the third period sealed the Devils’ (7-4-0) 2-1 victory over the Bruins (5-5-1).

‘It’s a tough way to lose any game,’ Bruins goalie Tim Thomas (29 saves) said. ‘I mean, any game’s a tough loss.’

On a night when Yann Danis was making his first career start for the Devils in goal, filling in for four-time Vezina Trophy winner Martin Brodeur, the Bruins failed to capitalize on the opportunity.

Danis was seeing his first NHL action since suffering a 6-2 loss at the hands of these same Bruins on April 12, 2009, while with his old team, the New York Islanders. In three games against the Bruins last season, he had an abysmal 0-3 record.

Tonight, however, was a different story.

‘I felt pretty confident coming in,’ Danis (31 saves) said. ‘Like I said, I think I’ve been playing really well in practice and I think that’s the key. They had a few chances early on and I made the saves and built confidence from that and then we scored the first goal. Then after that we kind of settled down a bit and played really good defensively. It definitely helped me out there.’

New Jersey struck first at the 13:25 mark in the first period when Niclas Bergfors unleashed a shot from the left faceoff circle, which bounced off of Thomas’ chest and right to the feet of David Clarkson who tapped in the puck for the early 1-0 Devils lead.

The Bruins responded 2:32 into the second period off a play where captain Zdeno Chara’s shot broke a New Jersey player’s stick and fell to left winger Marco Sturm who fed the puck into the slot to a charging Patrice Bergeron who blasted it home, tying the score at one and getting his third goal of the season.

‘As I mentioned last week, (Patrice) has been our best forward, by far,’ Bruins coach Claude Julien said on Bergeron’s play tonight. ‘Since the beginning of the year, he’s been our best and most consistent forward. He’s having a great year. He’s playing extremely well. He’s very reliable and that goal he scored tonight is deserving because of his play.’

New Jersey’s game-winning goal with only a couple of minutes left in regulation came as the result of another loose puck in the goalie box that a Devils player pounced on and put in the back of the net.

‘That second goal went off of a couple sticks before it trickled between Timmy’s legs,’ Julien said. ‘I am not going to sit here and start pointing a finger at Timmy. I am just saying that both goals were loose pucks that were right behind them that we weren’t able to clear, and Timmy wasn’t able to freeze. Those were the two goals that they got.’

The B’s outshot the Devils, 32-31, but they still were not able to come out with the victory.

New Jersey came to Boston, looking for their sixth win in as many road games, and they got it.

The Bruins on the other hand have yet to win back-to-back games through 11 games this season.

‘We are never happy with losing games, but I was pretty proud of the way we stuck with the programs,’ Bruins defenseman Derek Morris said. ‘A couple of bounces here, but obviously two goals that kind of trickled their way through there. And sometimes you have nights like that, and don’t get rewarded. We will get back and we will be ready for the next one.’

Julien was not disappointed in his team’s performance, conceding that this was a hard fought battle between two teams where one team got the lucky break in the end.

‘I am not disappointed in the way that we played, but definitely disappointed in the outcome,’ Julien said. ‘I thought that we played well enough to give our team a chance to win. This is one of those nights that throughout the course of a season that you lose a hockey game probably because the other team got one extra bounce going their way.’
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