Tim Thomas and Bruins shutout Canucks 4-0 to even series at 2-2

For the second game in row, the Bruins looked like a team on a mission as they shutout the Vancouver Canucks 4-0 in Game 4 on Wednesday night at TD Garden to even the best-of-seven Stanley Cup Finals at 2-2. Tim Thomas held down the fort with 38 saves, while Rich Peverley (2 goals), Michael Ryder, and Brad Marchand provided the offense.

Rich Peverley opened the scoring for the Bruins 11:59 into the game. Zdeno Chara sent a long diagonal pass from his own zone to David Krejci along the right wing boards in the neutral zone. Krejci made a quick one-touch pass to Rich Peverley a stride outside the blue line. Peverley gained the zone and got Raffi Torres to over-commit, which created a clear breakaway for Peverley before snapping a shot through the five-hole of Roberto Luongo. The goal was Peverley's 3rd goal of the postseason.

Michael Ryder increase the Bruins' lead to 2-0 at 11:11 of the second period when his quick release wrister from the top of the left circle deflected off the stick of Vancouver defenseman Sami Salo and knuckled under the glove of Roberto Luongo for #73's 7th goal of the playoffs.

Brad Marchand made it a 3-goal lead 2:18 later when he roofed a backhander over Luongo's glove. Patrice Bergeron won a battle for the puck behind the net and shoveled it out front to Marchand, who chipped the backhander home.

Rich Peverley's second goal of the game made it 4-0. Milan Lucic made a self-pass, jumped around Kevin Bieksa, regained possession of the puck, and directed the puck towards the net. Peverley was driving to the goal and tipped the puck past Luongo 3:39 into the third period. The goal chased Luongo from the game and forced former BC Eagle and Marblehead native Cory Schneider into action.

Things got ugly late in the game. With 2:27 left in the game Brad Marchand took down Keith Ballard in the corner. As the penalty on Marchand was being whistled, Daniel Sedin took a run at Marchand. Marchand ducked under Sedin's hit and flipped him over, which brought everyone together in a scrum. During the scrum, Adam McQuaid appeared to welcome all challengers, but no one wanted to take a shot at the mulleted maniac. Just over 30 seconds later, Alex Burrows tried to chop the stick out of Tim Thomas' hand. Thomas reacted to Burrows' chop by giving a Burrow's a swinging slash with his goal stick on the leg, which brought everyone together once again.

Notes & Quotes:

- Bobby Orr was the honorary captain for tonight's game and held a Horton #18 banner during the pre-game ceremony. As several people on Twitter pointed out, the Bruins scored 8 goals on Cam Neely's night as honorary captain and 4 goals on Bobby Orr's night as honorary captain.

- Marc Savard was at TD Garden tonight.

- Nathan Horton was also in building and was in the dressing room after the game to pass "The Jacket" along to Rich Peverley.

- Milan Lucic led the Bruins in shots (5) and was the co-leader in hots (4).

- The Bruins have outscored the Canucks 12-1 over the last two games.

- Claude Julien broke a Bruins record for most coaching wins in a postseason with 14 wins. Mike MIlbury previous held the record with 13 wins in 1991. This is somewhat of a pointless stat because the NHL has changed the playoff format several times.

Zdeno Chara on what motivated the Bruins tonight:

"Like I said before, it’s Stanley Cup Finals and everybody’s really motivated, everybody’s excited, and it’s that time of the year that you shouldn’t need much to get motivated for. I mean it’s right in front of us."

Shawn Thornton on Nathan Horton being in the room after the game:

"It was awesome…he’s such a good team guy. He does everything for us and he has all year, everybody on this team loves him. He makes everyone around him feel better about themselves. I mean I can’t, I don’t think I’ve ever met a more positive guy in the room. So for him to come in, the guys were pretty excited. I didn’t even know he was here until he walked out to give the jacket. That was a pretty nice surprise."

Henrik Sedin when asked how to solve Tim Thomas:

"I don’t know, do you have an answer for me?"

Cory Schneider when asked if he allowed himself to realize he was playing in a Stanley Cup Final game in his hometown:

"Maybe after it’ll sink it, but at that point it was just a game that I was trying to hold down the fort in and give the guys some momentum. So maybe after the fact it will feel like that but at the time it was another hockey game that you have to do your best in."

Roberto Luongo on Michael Ryder's goal:

"Sami [Salo] tried to block it and you know it was going high glove and it dropped about three feet, so I don’t know what else I could say about that.  You know, I mean I was out, I was challenging, I was ready and it just dropped.  Obviously, it’s probably going to be viewed as a bad goal and I don’t know what else to do on that play."

Tyler Seguin on the crowd chanting "Nathan Horton":

"It was special. I was on the bench and you hear it, it kind of gives you goose bumps a little bit. It’s just nice knowing that the fans felt the same way we do. We have him in the back of our mind at all times."

Brad Marchand on his style of play:

"Obviously, it’s helped my game to try and be a bit of a rat out there."

Rich Peverley on how it felt to contribute offensively:

"Yeah you know whenever you can contribute offensively you want to be able to help out. I thought the whole team did a good job of bringing a lot of energy tonight."

Video of Tim Thomas' post-game presser: