Late goal sinks Bruins; Devils win 2-1

The Bruins played well tonight, but not well enough to get a "W". Devils' goalie Martin Brodeur had a rare night off, handing over the reigns in net to Yann Danis for the first time this season. Brodeur's understudy was up to the task and shutdown the B's all night long, allowing just one goal on 32 shots. 

The Bruins seemed to carry the play for much of the first period, but The Devils got on the scoreboard first with 6:35 left in the opening period when Nicklas Bergfors' shot tickled through Tim Thomas' pads and David Clarkson swiped the puck past the goal line.

Patrice Bergeron tied it up at 1-1 2:32 into the second period just moments after a Bruins power play expired. Zdeno Chara's shot broke Johnny Oduya's stick (which predictably set off a rant against composite sticks by Jack Edwards), Marco Sturm collected the carom and threw the puck in the general direction of the goal presumably looking for Michael Ryder at the top of crease, but the puck skidded past Ryder and Bergeron hammered the puck home for his 4th of the season.

The score remained tied at 1-1 until 1:26 left in the third period when the Devils scored on a play that was similar to their first goal. A bouncing puck trickled through the pads of Thomas and Dainus Zubrus collected the puck from behind Thomas and put it in the net for his second of the season.

The Bruins had a great chance to tie the game with the goalie pulled when Zdeno Chara deflected a shot that rang off the post with 36 seconds left in the game.

Notes:

- The Bruins did a good job of staying out of the box tonight, but unfortunately they didn't draw many penalties either.

- The Bruins didn't seem to have too much trouble moving the puck through the neutral zone against the trap. They had much more trouble when the Devils started to forecheck more aggressively late in the game.

- Tim Thomas made 29 saves in the loss.

- Tonight's game was a stark contrast to Yann Danis' last NHL game when he gave up 4 goals on 15 shots in 25 minutes against the Bruins as a member of the New York Islanders on April 12, 2009.

- The B's had 17 missed shots.

- Vladimir Sobotka recorded 6 hits.

- The Bruins will be back in action on Saturday when they take on the Edmonton Oilers in a Halloween matinee. The Boston Bruins Foundation is selling raffle tickets to win a luxury suite for 14 fans. Tickets are $2 each (minimum of 5 tickets) and all proceeds go to The Boston Bruins Foundation and Celebrities for Charities. Deadline for the drawing is 11:00 AM on Friday.