The game is tied 1-1 after 20 minutes with the Bruins holding a 9-8 shots lead.

The Bruins again came out with good energy in the first period and appeared to grab the lead 63 seconds into the game when Steve Begin came around the net behind J-S Giguere and centered a pass that went off Michael Ryder’s left skate.

After a review by the booth, it was deemed that Ryder kicked the puck into the net and the goal was disallowed..

But the Bruins kept up the pace and finally were rewarded when Miroslav Satan snapped a wrister from the left circle and beat Giguere five-hole at 9:36.

The Bruins kept up the intensity with fights just seconds apart as Milan Lucic battled Colton Orr and Shawn Thornton went at it with Wayne Primeau.

The Leafs regained some momentum when Viktor Stalberg beat Tim Thomas to the short side with just under five minutes left..

Thomas, who hasn’t started a game of any kind since Feb. 2 against Washington, redeemed himself big-time when he stoned Phil Kessel in the final 30 seconds of the period on a rush up the right boards.

Tim Thomas, fresh from his Olympic silver medal-winning experience in Vancouver, chimed in on Tuesday at TD Garden about those who said he’s not having the Vezina-type season he had last year with the Bruins as Boston finished first in the Eastern Conference.

“I don’t think my game was ever really lost, contrary to what a lot of the media in Boston has liked to focus on,” he said. “The numbers aren’t exactly the same as last year but not every year goes exactly the same and not every goalie wins the Vezina every year.”

Thomas, who is expected to serve as the back-up to Tuukka Rask for the Bruins tonight against the Canadiens, is 13-15-7 this season with a 2.52 goals against average and a .915 save percentage.

“I feel good about where [I'm] at. I felt in a good enough spot where I could’ve helped stepped in for USA and done the job if I needed to. Ryan Miller was exceptional, I’m not saying that. I think it was the right move. I’ll just be ready when called upon here.”

Thomas also compared the crowd at Canada Place on Sunday for the Gold Medal game to those for playoff games between the Bruins and Canadiens.

“It was exciting but the emotions of the crowd went from elation when they got up 2-0, to very nervous and tense when we tied it up with 24 seconds left and then all through overtime it was pretty tense until [Sydney] Crosby got that goal and then there was elation again,” Thomas said Tuesday at the Bruins morning skate.

“We had a good portion of USA fans there, too. It was a great atmosphere but as far as just crowds go, still nothing has matched the Montreal-Boston games in the playoffs, even the Olympics.”

Thomas also chimed in about those who said he’s not having the Vezina-type season he had last year with the Bruins as Boston finished first in the Eastern Conference.

“I don’t think my game was ever really lost, contrary to what a lot of the media in Boston has liked to focus on. The numbers aren’t exactly the same as last year but not every year goes exactly the same and not every goalie wins the Vezina every year.

“I feel good about where [I'm] at. I felt in a good enough spot where I could’ve helped stepped in for USA and done the job if I needed to. Ryan Miller was exceptional, I’m not saying that. I think it was the right move. I’ll just be ready when called upon here.”

Six Bruins are playing in the Olympics in Vancouver. The first round of preliminary games has been played, let’s take a look how the boys from the black and gold have faired.

Canada

Patrice Bergeron – The Bruins center had 12:50 of ice time in Canada’s 8-0 win against Norway on Tuesday. Bergeron had an assist on Mike Richard’s goal that made it 3-0 in the second period. Bergeron had a plus/minus of 1 and two penalty minutes with an interference call in the second period.

Germany

Marco Sturm — The German captain had 15:14 of ice time and two shots on goal in Sweden’s 2-0 win on Wednesday.

Slovakia

Zdeno Chara — The Slovakian captain had four penalty minutes and a shot on goal in 26:28 of ice time in Wednesday’s 3-1 loss to the Czech Republic.

Miroslav Satan — The Bruins front line forward was a scratch against the Czech’s. Satan sustained a laceration to his hand against Tampa Bay last Thursday before the break.

Czech Republic

David Krejci — The Bruins second line center had a shot of goal in 14:20 of ice time against the Czech’s.

United States

Tim Thomas — Dressed as Ryan Miller’s backup against Switzerland on Tuesday and Norway on Thursday.

The 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics hockey tournament starts at 3 p.m. (ET) on Tuesday at Canada Hockey Place with Team USA taking on Switzerland to begin the Group A preliminary round robin. Throughout the day, we will present short bios of the teams in each group, starting with Group A, where the United States and Canada continue a long international rivalry.

Note: After the preliminary round, each of the 12 teams will be ranked on the basis of points. The top four teams advance to the quarterfinals, with the remaining teams playing to advance.

Schedule (All times ET)

Feb. 16 — USA vs. Switzerland, 3 p.m.

Feb. 16 — Canada vs. Norway, 7:30 p.m.

Feb. 18 — USA vs. Norway, 3 p.m.

Feb. 18 — Canada vs. Switzerland, 7:30 p.m.

Feb. 20 — Norway vs. Switzerland, 3 p.m.

Feb. 21 — Canada vs. USA, 7:40 p.m.

United States

Captain — Jamie Langenbrunner

Assistant captains — Zach Parise, Dustin Brown, Ryan Suter, Brian Rafalski

Goaltenders — Tim Thomas, Ryan Miller, Jonathan Quick

Players to Watch — Phil Kessel, Chris Drury, Patrick Kane

Bruins on the roster — Thomas

Breakdown — Team USA’s strength is between the pipes. The Sabres’ Miller is likely to get most of the starts for the Americans, but any one of the three goaltenders can get hot and carry the team into the medal round. Drury was a standout at Boston University, where he helped the Terriers to a national championship in 1995. This will be his third Olympic games. Kane and Kessel could give the team some offensive pop, but to stand up to the likes of Russia and Canada the Americans will have to be able to keep pucks out of the net. Team USA definitely has talent, but it may not be enough to propel it to its first gold medal since the 1980 Miracle on Ice, the only other time Team USA took first aside from the 1960 Forgotten Miracle.

Canada

Captain — Scott Niedermayer

Assistants — Sidney Crosby, Jerome Iginla, Chris Pronger

Goaltenders – Marc-Andre Fleury, Roberto Luongo, Martin Brodeur

Players to Watch — Whom not to watch? With such a star-packed team there are plenty of names to keep an eye on, but look out for Blackhawks young forward Jonathan Toews.

Bruins on the roster — Patrice Bergeron

Breakdown — The pressure is on the Canadians to win this tournament going away. It is their sport, their country and their gold medal to lose. With Crosby, Joe Thornton and Dany Heatley likely to head up the top line and stout defensemen including Pronger on the blue line, it is an NHL general manager’s dream. Add in Luongo and the timeless Brodeur, and Canada has plus players and depth at every position. Look for Bergeron to man center on the third line and play against opposing teams’ top lines as a defensive forward.

Switzerland

Captain — Mark Streit

Goaltenders — Jonas Hiller, Martin Gerber, Tobias Stephan

Players to Watch — Streit and Hiller are the NHL stalwarts, but some young talent at the minor league level includes Yannick Weber of the AHL Hamilton Bulldogs (Canadiens), Andres Ambuhl of the AHL Hartford Wolfpack (Rangers) and Luca Sbisa of the WHL Portland Winterhawks (Ducks).

Breakdown — Gerber and Hiller are the strength of Team Switzerland and Streit is a strong captain for the team, but overall the talent is spread too thin to compete with the North Americans. A quarterfinals run would be an outside possibility.

Norway

Captain — TBD

Goaltenders — Pal Grotnes, Andre Lysenstoen, Ruben Smith.

Who to Watch – Ole-Kristian Tollefson, Patrick Thoresen, Tommy Jakobsen.

Breakdown — Tollefson and Thoresen are the only two players that have any NHL experience and neither are currently in the league. Tollefson has had the most success as the 65th pick of the 2002 draft by the Blue Jackets. He is with the Grand Rapids Griffins in the Red Wings system. Tollefson and Thorensen are two of only five Norwegian players to ever lace up in the league. Thorensen played with the Oilers and Flyers and now is with Salat Yulaev of the KHL. Jakobsen is the old bear of the team with 131 international appearances. Do not expect much from Norway. The last time it qualified for the Olympics was 1994, and its highest finish in the tournament was eighth in 1972.

Boston has not seen its hockey team have a stretch this bad since the days when Vic Stasiuk used to lace up his skates at the old Garden in 1956 when the Bruins had a stretch where they went 0-8-0.

With an 0-6-2 record in its last eight games, this season’s Bruins have not seen a win since beating the Western Conference leaders from San Jose  on Jan. 14. It would have been odd to see the Bruins sandwich seven losses in a row with wins against both conference leaders, but it was not to be in a 3-1 loss to the Capitals on Tuesday.

Everybody knows what the problem is. There’s no hiding what ails these bears — they cannot score. Through the past eight contests, the Bruins have 12 goals, or 1.5 per game. After a stretch where the team simply did not play well, the Bruins have had decent efforts and good scoring chances in the past few contests and have run into some pretty good goaltending along the way. Why can’t the Bruins score? It is kind of a chicken or egg type of question.

Read the rest of this entry »

WILMINGTON — After a week of practice to get healthy and screw their heads on straight, the Bruins will travel to Buffalo on Friday to take on the Northeast Division leading Sabres. It is an interesting challenge for Boston as the Buffalo is 15 points ahead of the Bruins in the standings but has been in a bit of a funk for the last week, going 1-3-1 in its last five games. The Sabres did snap a three game skid by beating the Devils 2-1 in a shootout on Wednesday night in New Jersey and remain a very dangerous team in the Eastern Conference.

“They are a pretty good team, they are playing well,” coach Claude Julien said. “I saw them play yesterday against New Jersey. They are playing with lots of confidence, they got great goaltender which keeps them in the game. They gave up 40 shots last night and only gave up a goal. We are already challenged a little bit in the goal scoring department so we are going to have to work just that much harder to get past this guy.”

The Sabres goaltender is Ryan Miller who is expected to be the starting net-minder for Team USA in the Vancouver Olympics and is second in the NHL with a 2.06 goals-against average. As Julien said, with the Bruins scoring woes, it will indeed be a challenge. Read the rest of this entry »

Summary — The Senators completed a sweeps week against the Bruins with another victory at TD Garden, 2-1 over in this Saturday’s matinee. Daniel Alfredsson scored Ottawa’s first goal and Jason Spezza had the game winner in the second period. Tim Thomas took his second loss of the week at the hands of the Senators though he played better than Monday when he was pulled from the game in favor or Tuukka Rask.

Daniel Paille scored the Bruins only goal in the second period with a blast from the left wing over Elliot’s glove shoulder to tie the game. The goal was the forward’s seventh of the season.

The Bruins have not won a game in the Garden during the entire month of January (they did when at Fenway) and continue to struggle to score goals without Marc Savard and Marco Sturm. Byron Bitz and Steve Begin also missed the game. None of the four will travel to Carolina to take on the Hurricanes tomorrow night as the Bruins will not have ice time before the game.

Boston is now six points behind Ottawa for second place in the Northeast Division.

Three Stars

Brian Elliott — Ottawa’s goalie was solid in stopping 32 of shots and his team outscored the Bruins 7-2 on the week.

Daniel Alfredsson — In two games this week, Alfredsson has outscored the Bruins 4-2 and been a general menace in the TD Garden. The wingman has six goals and four assists for Ottawa in his last 12 games since coming back from an injury.

Daniel Paille — The wingman skated hard and provided the only spark of offense for the Bruins in another frustrating offensive performance.

Turning Point

For the second game in a row the play hinged not on a goal that was scored, but one that was not. After killing an Ottawa penalty it looked like the Bruins had taken a 2-1 lead late in the second period when Mark Recchi crashed the net and appeared to knock the puck past Brian Elliot. The play was reviewed and determined that Recchi kicked the puck (which ricocheted of Elliot’s skate). About a minute later Spezza scored the go-ahead goal and the Senators did not look back.

Key Play

Jason Spezza was questionable coming into Saturday’s game and the Bruins probably wish that he had delayed his comeback from injury for at least another day. He scored the game winner at 16:39 in the second period and the goal took away any momentum the Bruins had mustered. Spezza was fed in the center of the offensive zone from Alex Kovalev and let out a wily wrist shot that Thomas was able to see and follow, but could not corale.