Thomas’ save of the series on Gionta should make Bruins history
Thomas stops Gionta/By S. Bradley
BOSTON — On a night of remarkable plays at the TD Garden, Tim Thomas’ superhuman save on Brian Gionta in the second overtime might actually get overlooked by historians.
But there’s just no way to undervalue the play he made to get his left pad on the puck and keep tonight’s Game 5 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinal series with Montreal going until Nathan Horton could end it, 2-1, with a goal later in that second extra session.
Here’s a look at that amazing play:
“Well when it started I actually came out and was playing it as if [Travis] Moen would have a breakaway, because that’s what it looked like, a break, right off the start,” recalled Thomas after he made 44 saves in the dramatic win. “And then I realized my D was going to get back and make it a 2-on–1, and I was out pretty far so I had to make sure I started to get my backward momentum going so I could play both the shot and the pass. And I was just barely had enough speed to be able to make that push over on the pass. And I was just fortunate enough to get a leg out and cover that part of the net.”
The save did more than just keep the game going. It re-energized everyone. The fans took to their feet to salute Thomas. And the players fed off that. Heck, even without the crowd, Thomas’ teammates were psyched to see their Vezina Trophy nominee save the day.
“We got into it too,” said defenseman Andrew Ference. “It was a great, great save. That’s a hard save to make.”
Added Horton: “That was huge for us. That was a big lift. He’s been doing that all year, and what a special goaltender he is. That definitely gave us a big lift and gave us a little bit more momentum to carry on after that.”
History will determine where Thomas’ save ranks among the Horton game-winning goal, the Zdeno Chara save, the Michael Ryder save and other assorted plays that combined to give the Bruins a victory. As far as emotional lift, however, Thomas’ save was probably No. 1.
Guy stood on his head last night. He was great when they needed great
Great push off on that save. He absorbed some hard shots and kept his rebounds to a minimum. Obviously his best games this spring. That was a fine display of NHL goaltending at both ends.
Well you can add me to the amazed list.
I don’t know how he managed that, but he was definitely in the zone last night. And you could see just how tired the teams were, and I think that save probably did kick some extra adrenaline into the B’s-after that save losing would have really sucked.
A part of me is very glad that the game 6 isn’t until Tuesday, because I can’t help but think they need an extra day to recuperate from that game.
need to get deep for this save to be remembered. we’re going to need more of these to do that.
[...] "That was huge for us. That was a big lift. He’s been doing that all year, and what a special goaltender he is. That definitely gave us a big lift and gave us a little bit more momentum to carry on after that," said teammate Nathan Horton. [...]
It will rank among the best saves of this year’s (or any year’s) playoffs.
If Thomas continues to play like he did in game 5, the Bruins may be still be playing on Memorial Day.
We were going crazy at the game,once that save happened we all gave Timmy a standing-O! He was brilliant between the pipes…way to go Timmy:)