Hiller Stops 45 To Shutout The Bruins

Added on Dec 21, 2010 by J Merrill in

NHL

Jonas Hiller tallied up his second shutout of the year to give Anaheim Ducks 3-0 Victory over the Boston Bruins on Monday night. In a game where Hiller stopped 45 shots, the Bruins looked visibly frustrated. Hiller said after the game, “If we play like that every single game, with guys out there blocking shots, we’ve got a good chance to win.” It was the eighth shutout of Hiller’s career.

Ducks forward Bobby Ryan said he thought Hiller was unstoppable on Monday night, and was happy Hiller was wearing the same sweater as he was. He concluded after the game, “Jonas was in a zone and really stole the show.”

Ducks Rookie Brandon McMillan had his first multi-point game of his career, and it helped the Ducks snap a two-game on a season high 7 game road trip. Lubomir Visnovsky and Corey Perry also scored and Teemu Selanne had two assists for the Ducks, who play in Buffalo on Tuesday.

Even though Boston Bruins goalie Tim Thomas made 22 saves in the game, it wasn’t enough as the Bruins couldn’t manufacture a goal. Tomas said after the game “It was kind of a weird game, from my perspective. Not a lot of action and then all of the sudden something funny will happen.” In fact, three of his last four regulation losses have come during games where the Bruins could not find the twine. Boston forward Marc Savard really felt like they didn’t do enough for their goalie, he said “Our goalies have been battling back there for us every night. But we’ve got to give them some support.”

The Bruins were really trying to win this one. Bruins’ Coach Claude Julien noted that the Bruins could have tied Northeast Division-leading Montreal with a victory and moved into third place in the Eastern Conference standings. With the loss, Boston is now in the eighth spot for a playoff race that won’t really get going for a few more months. Julie said after the game “When you’ve got a chance to move up five spots, it’s unacceptable. This game’s about emotion. I think that’s the thing that really irked me. We should have been excited to play this game and move up five.”

Although the Bruins outshot the ducks, and thats including an 18-8 second period, they still lost the game. Boston beat the Capitals on Saturday night to snap a season high 3 game losing streak, but with this loss they have now lost four of their last five. Savard concluded that the Bruins offense has been flat, and feels the blame belongs to him and his team mates. “It’s been stale, our offense. Claude’s trying. He can’t yell at us every single night. It’s on the guys in this room, too.”

The Boston Bruins (17-11-4,38pts), who are now 2nd in Northeast Division, will face the Atlanta Thrashers(19-11-5, 43pts) at home on Thursday. The Anaheim Ducks 18-15-4,43pts), who are now 2nd in Pacific Division, will face the Buffalo Sabres(13-16-4, 30pts) tonight.