Summary – Zdeno Chara blasted a slap shot past Evgeni Nabokov in the fourth round of a shootout, lifting the Bruins to a 2-1 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Thursday (recap). Tim Thomas made 41 saves and stopped all four San Jose shooters in the shootout to help the B’s secure the victory and end a three-game losing streak. Daniel Paille scored in the second period to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead before Joe Thornton answered with a goal later in the second to draw San Jose even.

Three Stars

Tim Thomas – A rock-steady, 41-save performance by Thomas helped the Bruins pick up a big win.

Zdeno Chara – The captain went with his best mode of attack, an overpowering slap shot to score the only goal of the shootout.

Daniel Paille – With the Bruins lineup becoming more depleted by the day, the steady forward raised his game, scoring one goal and creating several other chances.

Turning Point

After a scoreless opening period, Shawn Thornton intercepted a Doug Murray clearing pass near the San Jose blue line and quickly moved the puck to Paille, whose shot ultimately deflected off the skate of Dan Boyle and into the net to give the Bruins the lead in a game in which they needed a competitive showing.

Key Play

With Dany Heatley in a position to secure the win for San Jose with the third shot in the shootout, Thomas stayed with Heatley’s back hand shot, snaring it with his glove. Chara then sent his blast past Nabokov.

He wasn’t particularly proud of it but Tim Thomas attempted to explain himself after his Bruins teammates took the goat horns off his head.

Before Mark Recchi tied the game with just over two minutes left in regulation, the moment a lot of fans were going to take from the game was Thomas taking his frustrations out on Philadelphia’s Scott Hartnell while Danny Syvret was taking a slap shot into the space Thomas just vacated.

Five minutes into the second period, Thomas had seen enough from Hartnell. He had taken a shot on him while he was on the ice and vulnerable just moments earlier and Hartnell was camped out in front of the net to Thomas’s right.

Thomas explained himself after the game.

Tim Thomas returns tonight for the Bruins after missing the last six games with a minor undisclosed injury. The Bruins take on the Ottawa Senators at TD Garden.

The B’s have earned 9 of a possible 10 points in their last five games to tie Ottawa for first in the Northeast Division with 29 points.

Last season, as the Bruins were on their way to 53 regular season wins and first place in the Eastern Conference heading into the playoffs, things couldn’t have been much better in the month of November. They went 11-1-1, racking up 23 of a possible 26 points in the month.

What a difference a year makes. This year the Bruins are 2-2-2 in six November games. Tim Thomas recorded his second straight shutout on Thursday night but it wasn’t good enough for a win. The Bruins were beaten in a shootout, 1-0, by a Florida Panthers team that was 5-9-1 coming in.

It was their third shutout loss and the eighth time they have scored fewer than two goals in a contest. Amazing they are even approaching .500 with an 8-8-2 mark.

How bad are things right now? They Bruins not only didn’t score in the 60 minutes of regulation, outshooting Florida 19-1 alone in the second period, they were held scoreless in the five-minute overtime. They failed to light the lamp in their first three shootout chances. And when Thomas gave them another chance by stopping the first three shootout attempts himself, he had reason or hope to think the Bruins would break through.

Not quite. After Blake Wheeler, Patrice Bergeron and Zdeno Chara missed in the first three rounds, Michael Ryder had his chance in the fourth and extra round. Not even an extended shootout could help the Bruins find the back of the net on this night.

Afterward, the Bruins talked about their hard work and frustration on a night that yielded just one point for the overtime loss.

Coach Claude Julien thought his team deserved better but they were outdone by Tomas Vokoun.

Julien said the B’s just have to find ways to score.

Zdeno Chara said the 19-1 shots advantage in the second period just didn’t pay off.

Chara said the Bruins worked incredibly hard on this night and it didn’t pan out.

Bruins goalie Tim Thomas simply looked at this game as a tie.

Bruins forward Shawn Thornton felt bad they couldn’t get the win for Thomas.

Tim Thomas made 27 saves as the Bruins blanked the Penguins, 3-0, at TD Garden, winning consecutive games for the first time this season. It Thomas’ second shutout this season and 14th career.

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Matt Hunwick gathered a rebound of his own shot after sharply cutting to the net from the right point to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead early in the second period.

The goal was Hunwick’s fourth of the season, but just his first point in seven games.  Fellow defender Dennis Wideman picked up his first point in over a month, assisting on the goal.

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Mark Recchi earned his 900th career assist, sending Daniel Paille in on a breakaway 3:34 into the third period. Paille gave Boston a 2-0 advantage, beating Pens goalie Marc-Andre Fleury stick side for his first goal and first point of the season.

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David Krejci returned to the lineup after missing two games with the H1NI virus (swine flu).  Krejci took his usual spot centering a line with Blake Wheeler and Michael Ryder on the wings.

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The defending Stanley Cup champs look like they are ready to get home. After opening the season with seven straight road wins, Pittsburgh suffered a 5-2 loss in LA last Thursday and a 5-0 drubbing by San Jose Saturday. The Pens, who are skating without Evgeni Malkin, Maxime Talbot, and Sergei Gonchar, finished the first period with two shots, a season low for a Bruins opponent.

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Penguins forward Chris Bourque, the 23-year-old son of Bruins legend Ray Bourque, is skating at the TD Garden for first time in a regular season NHL game. The third-year NHL forward has generated just one assist in nine games in his first season with Pittsburgh. He has played NHL preseason contests in Boston before.

Star of the Game – Still looking for players to step up offensively, Matt Hunwick launched an impromptu offensive attack in the second period. Bolting from the right point with little hesitation, Hunwick got the Bruins offense in gear.

Turning Point – The Penguins has started to gather momentum and appeared poised to tie contest when Marc Recci hit Daniel Paille with a breakaway pass setting up an insurance goal for Boston in the third period.

Tim Thomas gets the call in net tonight for the Bruins while the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins counter with Marc-Andre Fleury.

Center David Krejci is taking part in warmups and is expected to make his return after missing the last two games with H1N1 virus.

After missing practice on Monday, Michael Ryder is available tonight for the B’s.

The timing is simply too coated in irony to ignore.

The Bruins dropped another game to the Detroit Red Wings by a 2-0 score and lost two straight games for the first time this season in the process, and haven’t scored a goal in exactly 132:58 and counting. Once again they completely whiffed with an 0-for-3 on the power play — which drops them to 0-for-their-last-17 power play chances — and couldn’t muster up any notable offense over the course of the game aside from a pair of early Marco Sturm opportunities and a few post-worthy bids.

The B’s are averaging 1.85 goals per game in the seven contests since Savard landed on long term injured reserve with a broken left foot, and that isn’t going to win a lot of hockey games.

Meanwhile, in Toronto, Phil Kessel played his first game for the Maple Leafs coming off shoulder surgery and fired a career-high 10 shots on net while playing 23:50 of ice time in the overtime loss — a good two minutes more than the ice time logged for any member of the Bruins in their listless loss to the Wings. Kessel was buzzing around the net all night and showing the kind of dynamic offensive presence that Boston is sorely lacking. The Black and Gold have to work ridiculously hard for their offense right now, and things aren’t getting any better. 

The B’s are playing solid enough defense (exactly 2 goals per game in their last seven), getting pretty decent goaltending and playing with effort and grit in most instances, but they simply have no finish to their game. David Krejci and Patrice Bergeron can both give the Bruins quality play at the center spot, but they don’t have wingers capable of finishing with anything approaching a flourish. Bergeron led the B’s with four shots attempted on net Tuesday night, and the Black and Gold simply don’t have that one game-changing force able to lift them out of the goal-scoring doldrums.

YOU’RE THE BEST AROUND, NOTHING’S EVER GONNA BRING YOU DOWN: Got to give it Kessel. He didn’t score and finished a minus-1 for the game, but he squeezed off a game-high 10 shots and showed more offensive dominance in one game than many of the Boston forwards have all season. He showed some toughness shaking off a Matthias Ohland hit in the first period that bloodied his lip, and gave Toronto fans a preview of the explosive skill set the 22-year-old brought to the table for three seasons with the Spoked B. Give Shawn Thornton full marks for skating the entire game as if his pants were on fire. The fourth-line tough guy finished with a game-high nine hits, but he couldn’t spark a genuinely lifeless Bruins bunch.

GOAT HORNS: The power play might be taking permanent residence in this spot soon enough. The B’s have put up a pungent 0-for-17 on the PP, and went 0-for-3 with two cruddy shots on goal for the entire night. The B’s are 1-for-20 on the PP without Marc Savard and sit at a miserable 11.5 percent success rate. That’s 6-for-52 on the season, and a 2-for-44 mark without counting their four power play goals against the Carolina Hurricanes in the second game of the season.