Thomas keeps streak alive, Bruins win 9th straight

Boston Bruins defenseman Andrew Ference (21), center, celebrates with teammates after scoring the first goal against the Montreal Canadiens during first period National Hockey League action Monday, Nov. 21, 2011 in Montreal. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Ryan Remiorz

Tim Thomas showed tonight, and has been showing this whole season, why he's the best goalie in the NHL right now. Thomas stopped all 33 shots he faced, shutting out the Habs 1-0 in a game that went down to the final seconds as Montreal dived their way to a power-play. What a great game by Thomas. He was the reason the Bruins won as Montreal outplayed the Bruins.

Bruins defenseman Andrew Ference scored the only goal of the game, in the first period, his 2nd goal of the season.

Bruins Benoit Pouliot took two bad dumb penalties in the second period and I won't be surprised if he doesn't play the next few games and Jordan Caron plays instead. The Bruins managed to kill off the first 2-minute penalty and then the 4-minute double-minor penalty that he took.

Game notes
Montreal led the game in shots 33-18, faceoff wins 26-25 and hits 26-21. The Bruins led the game in blocked shots 17-12. The Bruins went 0 for 1 on the power-play while Montreal went 0 for 4.

Tim Thomas made 33 saves on 33 shots and got his 3rd shutout of the season. Thomas is now 9-4 with a 1.77 GAA and a .938 save percentage.

Thomas now has a 133:04 scoreless streak going on (Source: Joe Haggerty via Twitter).

Patrice Bergeron had a bad night in the faceoff circle going 6-12, while Rich Peverley went 6-1.

Johnny Boychuk and Adam McQuaid led the Bruins in blocked shots with 4 apiece.

Milan Lucic and Adam McQuaid led the Bruins in hits with 3 apiece.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 12-7 this season and in 1st place in the Northeast Division. Get ready to rumble? As the next Bruins game is on Wednesday at the Buffalo Sabres at 7pm ET. This is the rematch game following the Milan Lucic hit on Ryan Miller. Many think that the Sabres will try and get some retribution in this game. So who will it be to step up and challenge Lucic to a fight? Their tough guy, Cody McCormick, is out injured. Tyler Myers is now out injured too. That leaves Robyn Regehr, Paul Gaustad and cheapshot artist Patrick Kaleta (he's the biggest cheapshot artist in the Eastern Conference behind Matt Cooke). I doubt Kaleta would fight but he will most likely try and lay out some Bruins so they have to keep their heads up when this idiot is on the ice. Speaking of which, Kaleta was fined today for high-sticking ex-Bruin Phoenix defenseman Derek Morris during Saturday's game. The refs should be watching him closely.